The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.s1.178.2

v2.c17.s1.178.2

He at the same time enlarged considerably the establishment, added fifteen Brahman and fifteen Sudra Sewaks or officiating priests, and gave fresh splendour to the worship of the deity of the place by the institution of numerous *bhogas* and *yātrās* (feasts and festivals)’³⁰. Dr. Hunter thus dilates on the circumstances which led to Anaṅgabhīma’s building the temple: ‘In the midst of his grandeur he was struck down by a great calamity. He unhappily slew a Brahman, and the rest of his life became one grand expiation of the guilt. Tradition relates that he built sixty stone temples to the gods; bridged ten board rivers; dug forty great wells and encased them with solid masonry; constructed one hundred and fifty-two flights of stairs on the river banks as bathing-places and points of transit; founded four hundred and fifty colonies of Brahmans upon lands granted out of the royal demesne; and excavated one million of tanks to protect the crops of the husbandmen. To him appeared lord Jagannātha in a dream and commanded him to journey to the sands of Puri, and there to call on his name, so the king in the twelfth year of his reign journeyed to Puri and offered up his prayers’³¹. He consulted his vassals and chief officers and addressed them at great length on the propriety of re-erecting the temple which he had in contemplation. ‘So the great temple of Jagannātha was built as it now stands, all the chiefs and princes applauding the king’s speech.