Legend surrounding the temple’s origin – Jai Jagannatha

The traditional story concerning the origins of the Jagannath temple is that the original image of Jagannath, a form of Vishnu, at the end of the Dvapara Yuga, was manifested near a banyan tree, near the shore in the form of an Indranila Mani, or the Blue Jewel. It was so dazzling that it could grant an instant moksha, so the deity, Dharma or Yama, wanted to hide it in the earth, and was successful. In the Kali Yuga, King Indradyumna of Malwa wanted to find that mysterious image, and to do so, he performed harsh penance to obtain his goal. Vishnu then instructed him to go to the seashore of Puri, and find a floating log to make an image from its trunk

Then, Indradyumna found the log of wood. He did a yajna, from which Nrisimha appeared and instructed that Narayana should be made as a four-fold expansion, i.e., Paramatma as Vasudeva, his Vyuha as Samkarshana, his Yogamaya as Subhadra, and his Vibhava as Sudarshana. After this, Vishwakarma appeared in the form of an artisan and prepared images of Jagannath, Balarama and Subhadra from the tree.

When this log, radiant with light, was seen floating in the sea, Narada told the king to make three deities out of it and place them in a pavilion. Indradyumna got Vishwakarma, the architect of gods, to build a magnificent temple to house the deities, and Vishnu himself appeared in the guise of a carpenter to make the deities, on condition that he was to be left undisturbed until he finished the work.

But just after two weeks, the queen, i.e., spouse of Indradyumna became very anxious. She took the carpenter to be dead as no sound came from the temple. Therefore, she requested the king to open the door. Thus, they went to see Vishnu at work, at which the latter abandoned his work, leaving the deities unfinished. The deity was devoid of any hands. But a divine voice told Indradyumna to install them in the temple. It has also been widely believed that in spite of the deity being without hands; it can watch over the world and be its lord. Thus, the idiom.

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