KALA PAHADA
KALA PAHADA
"Aaila Kalapahad
Bhangila Luhara bada
Peeila Mahanadi pani
Suvarna thalire heda (Hira ?) parasile
Mukundadevanka rani."
Kalapahad “The Black Mountain” was a black
character in the history of Odisha & the Hindus.He was a brahmin who later
changed his religion & started destroying all the religion places of Hindus
.
A General of Bengal
He invaded Orissa/Odisha in 1568 and marched up
to Puri. Kaala Pahaad wanted to burn the idols of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra
and Goddess Subhadra, and in one of his attacks on the temple at Puri he did
succeed in wrenching the idols from the temple. He threw the idols
unceremoniously on the street and kicked them around a bit before carting them
all the way to the banks of Hooghly and set fire to them. However, the ’brahmapinda’
or the core salagram stone (considered a sacred stone that is alive) had been
removed from the idols beforehand by the priests who had anticipated the attack
and had been hidden at Sonepur. When the priests of Lingaraj temple at
Bhubaneswar apprehended his attack they filled the sanctum sanctorum with husk
.
Kala Pahad tried his best to take it out,
but in the end set fire to the dump. After he left, the priests put the fire
out, but by then the sivalingam had cracked and been disfigured . After the defeat in the Battle of
Tribeni, Sulaiman Karrani was forced to make peace. He realized that he would
never be able to conquer Bhurishrestha unless he could defeat Rajiv Lochan Ray
in the battlefield, which was next to impossible. So he invited him to his
palace and trapped him into a love affair with his daughter. He offered Rajiv
Lochan Ray to convert to Islam to which he offered to convert his daughter to
Hinduism and marry her. However, King Gajapati Mukunda Deva was opposed to such
a matrimonial alliance and wrongly decreed that conversion to Hinduism was
illegal. Enraged, Rajiv Lochan Ray converted and married Karrani’s daughter
taking the name of Kalapahad (Black Hill – the destroyer). He led Karrani’s
revenge over Mukundadeva and attacked Orissa. He defeated Mukundadeva and
sacked major towns and religious places of Orissa/Odisha including
Hijli,Cuttack,Jajpur,Sambalpur,Konark,Ekamrakhsetra,Puri etc. in 1568 .
It is said , in 16th century Kala
Pahad , the general of the King of Bengal, attacked Odisha/Orissa ,defeated and
killed the last Hindu emperor,Gajapati Mukunda Dev, in the 16th century. He
ravaged some of the famous temples of Midnapore, the Khirachora Gopinath temple
of Balasore, the Khiching temple of Mayurbhanj, the temples of Konark
Bhubaneswar, Puri, Jajpur & Cuttack. Then he attacked Sambalpur .
Myth says that he had his camp along with
his soldiers here in a ground.It is said that, Goddess Samleswari, after whom
Sambalpur city is named as Sambalpur, came in the form of a woman selling
butter milk. This, they purchased , drank & died. He was buried right there
and a ‘tomb’ was built . The legend goes that Kala Pahad was defeated due to
Maa Samaleswari. Kala Pahad’s tomb and those of his soldiers are located on the
outskirts of Sambalpur . Madala Panji language is Oriya/Odia and was recorded
in Oriya/Odia and Telugu script, preserved in the Manuscript Library in Madras,
which speaks about the story regarding image of Nila Madhaba or Lord Jagannath
of Udra desa, as Orissa/Odisha was known in Middle Ages. It seems to have
re-written during 16th century when the king of Khurda had newly installed the
images after destruction made by Kalapahad,Muslim general of Nawab of
Bangal ( authenticity needs citation )
.
The most popular theory about the root of the
fall of Konark temple rests with the Kalapahad, the general of Bengal Sultan
Sulaiman Khan Karrani. .Kalpahad was buried in Sambalpur, Odisha. Large number
of tombs believed to be those of the dead soldiers of Kalapahar are located in
a mango grove near Samaleswari College building on the bank of river Mahanadi
in Odisha. The tomb of Kalapahad and the graves of his soldiers were destroyed
in 2006 by Hindu nationalists .
With the objective to
destroy Jagannath temple, Kalapahada entered into Puri town with Afghan
soldiers sitting on 300 elephants. It is learnt from the accounts given by a
Muslim writer that “in one temple there was an image made of 30 maunds of gold,
whose eyes were of diamond. This image was surrounded by gold images of 7 maunds.
Well-dressed, the women hid themselves inside different temples in the town and
did not take any attempt to leave the town. They thought “who is he that is
more powerful to do any harm to the servitors of our Thakur (Lord) ? But they
were astonished when the invaders entered into the temple and captured them.
According to the opinion of the religious saints those who accompanied
Sulaiman, each soldier came back from plunder with a gold image of about a
maund weight. But the most astonishing matter is that each of them those who
joined the plunder suffered a lot and met death. Madalapanji, the temple
chronicle holds that Kalapahad desecrated the Jagannath temple. According to
this tradition “when the servitors of the temple heard of Kalapahad’s design on
the temple they took the images of temple and hid them at a place Hatipada near
Chilka lake. But Kalapahad learnt of this and brought the images from that
place on elephants. He carried them to the bank of river Ganges and set fire to
them. Just at that time a miracle happened. His body got cracked in to pieces.
Being perplexed by this, he brought out the gods from the fire and dumped them
in the Ganges. Holy Ganga carried the Brahma (or Brahma Pinda) downstream where
a Vaishnava devotee Bishar Mohanty extracted the immortal part (Brahma). Later
he consecrated the “Brahma” at Garh Kujanga temple. The ‘Brahma’ was worshipped
there for seven years, (1568A.D to 1575 A.D). In 1575 A.D during the rule of
Ramachandra Dev, the first king of the Bhoi dynasty, ‘Brahma’ was brought from
Garh Kujang and kept at Khordha Garh by him. Next year in 1576 A.D the
construction of new images, their entry in to the temple along with the
installation of ‘Brahma’ in them were performed .
t is said that Kalapahad also ravaged several
temples and images at Kamakshya Pitha and then at Benares, where he also
severely tortured the Hindus. But suddenly a change came in him. The
heart-rending, screams of the Hindu women created a deep impact in his heart.
He considered himself as sinner for his determination to destroy his own
religion. Once he was sitting on the bank of river Ganges and thinking deeply
about his expiation for his sin, he came across his religious preceptor
(dikshya guru), an ascetic Premananda by name. In his childhood this fatherless
Rajiv Lochan or Kalachand was initiated in to his religious sect by him and had
decided to lead a religious life. He fell at his feet and begged apology for
his sin .
The Kalapahad episode is a black
chapter in the history of Odisha. The life of Kalapahad starting from his
conversion to Islam, marriage, iconoclastic activities, repentance and ultimate
surrender to all-merciful Lord Jagannath, has remained as rare phenomen in
history .
Odia couplet on this incident-
Bhalaa Ramachandi bhala re
Kalapahadaku duare basei
Bhalaa pani aani galaare ,
Thank You For Read
Best wishes from
Suvendu Singha & Mamata Singha . (India , Odisha , Baleswar )
Nice writing sir. Your are the only person who showed the culture of odisha.big fan sir. Love from London.
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