The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c18.15

v2.c18.15

**Buddhist origin of the place.** The reference to the Car Festival above made is of interest. It has been already shown (*ante*, pp. [135] f) that the festival owes its origin to Buddhism and its presence here suggests the idea that in it we have the survival of a Buddhist rite. The place must have been a flourishing town in the time of the Buddhists, though perhaps not so important at Bhuvaneśvara or Puri, and even as the two latter were appropriated by the Hindus, so was the former; and Śiva and Viṣṇu having been provided for, Sūrya came in for the third place. The five leading forms of modern Hinduism, including those of the Śaivas, the Vaiṣṇavas, the Sauras, the Śāktas and the Gāṇapatyas, had already long since obtained good currency in the 5th and the 6th centuries, and at the revival of Hinduism in Orissa about that time it is but natural to suppose that each sect should select one of the principal Buddhist seats of the province for its respective system of religion. Accordingly we find the Śaivas at Bhuvaneśvara, the Vaiṣṇavas at Puri, and the Śāktas at Yājapur, all unquestionable Buddhist places, still possessing vestiges of former Buddhist domination; and Koṇārak and Darpaṇa, the places for Sūrya and Gaṇeśa, may be fairly supposed to have been Buddhist. The evidence available is, certainly, exceedingly meagre and unsatisfactory; but without the assumption of previous sanctity and celebrity, it becomes difficult to account for the selection of a sea-beach for the dedication of so costly and magnificent a temple as the Black Pagoda.