Jayanta Mahapatra By The Door Thinking About The Jagannath Puri, The Konark Sun Temple, The Lingaraj Temple, Khandagiri, Dhaulagiri Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

Jayanta Mahapatra sitting by door
And thinking about
The Jagannath Puri Temple,
The Konark Sun Temple,
The Lingaraj Temple,
Khandagiri, Dhaulagiri.

Who did it make the Sun Temple
And when did he,
How did he,
How many years did it take
In building
With the artisans, architects
And sculptors?

Who did it the Jagannath Puri Temple,
The White Pagoda,
Housing Jagannath, Balabhadra, Subhadra and Sudarshana
Going to the maternal uncle's house
On the ratha,
The grotesque and bizarre gods
Carved out of wooden neem logs
Made afresh again during the Nabakalebara?

Who did it the Soma Vanshi Lingaraj Temple
The rock-built temple
Out of sandstone and laterite
Dedicated to Harihara,
A form of Shiva and Vishnu,
Lord Shiva, Lingaraj,
The King of Lingas?

The small twin hills of Khandaigiri and Udaygiri
(Broken Hill and Hill of Sunrise)
With the caves and temples
Belonging to the Jains
And Digambara sect of Jainism,
The dwelling retreats, cells
And shelters for the ascetics made for,
What to say about?

Again the mind lifts to Dhaulagiri
And he ruminating,
Reminiscing his visits
To the Dhauli Shanti stupas
On the banks of
The river Daya
Reading the rock edicts of King Ashoka
Where the Kalinga war was fought?

A poet of Orissa and an Oriya man,
Where can his mind go to,
Where will he,
Orissa the land of his birth
And nativity,
Orissa his motherland
And Oriya the mother tongue?