Kolkata :

A team of researchers has taken up a project to revive the lost glory of Jagannath Sadak — the ancient trail from Kolkata to Puri used by travellers and pilgrims before the railways came. The project was launched by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach), Bengal chapter on November 19, 2015.

Titled, “Listing and Documenting the Monuments of the Jagannath Sadak in West Bengal”, the compiling of heritage sites dotting this coastal route between Odisha and Bengal is now an elaborate three-volume document that informs about the precious structures lost in oblivion and also those which can still be protected. It will be released at the Indian Museum on Sunday. Anil Dhir, chief coordinator of the project, told TOI, “We have traced 200 remnants in Odisha, but only 100 in Bengal.

Many of the monuments don’t exist any more, but some structures, such as a Gurudwara at Chandrakona, a Jagannath temple at Dantan, a Kali temple at Bagnan and the Nandagopal temple at Mellock near Panskura, are still there.”

Travellers would cover the 516 km stretch in bullock carts, palanquins, horses, camels and elephants. Many walked.

Three years ago, Dhir took a bullock cart to traverse the entire stretch. “For the documentation, three different routes were taken in Bengal. They culminated at Dantan on the Odisha border,” explained Dhir. The route taken by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was through Tamluk, Mahisadal, Kanthi and Mohanpur while Guru Nanak took the route through Chandrakona, Midnapur and Narayangarh.

The popular and shorter route through Uluberia, Panskura, Debra and Belda. G M Kapur, convener, Intach’s Bengal chapter, said, “We will approach the Bengal and Odisha governments and the ASI to notify these 315 structures as protected monuments and help in their conservation.” With the advent of the railways, Jagannath Sadak was abandoned.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Kolkata News / by Ajanta Chakraborty / TNN / October 21st, 2017