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Villagers’ gesture to Badalpur mutt

BHUBANESWAR: While the Government faces difficulties in releasing the land of nearly 2000 mutts and temples from encroachment, poor farmers of Sisuapara village near here have set an example by donating five acres of farm land for maintenance of a mutt.

Believed to be nearly 300 years old, the Badalpur mutt on the banks of the Daya river was one of the important religious centres in and around the holy town of Puri engaged in propagation of the cult of Lord Jagannath. Since a number of hermits were staying in the mutt, the erstwhile kings of Puri have provided landed property for maintenance of the mutt’s day-to-day activities. As per an understanding with the mutt authorities, local people used to raise different crops on the farm land being owned by the mutt and were offering half of it to the mutt.

The royal rule was abolished following Independence and the mutt was taken over by the Endowment department of the state that reportedly failed to provide the resource support that it used to obtain earlier. And making matters worse, the land owned by the mutt was shown in the names of the farmers as owners during the last land settlement. As a result, the activities of the mutt were discontinued while the hermits were compelled to live in penury.

Realising the crisis, the villagers of Sisuapara volunteered to return five acres of fertile land to the mutt, said an officer of the department. “Though the poor farmers were dependent on the land for livelihood for decades, they were generous enough to consider the future of an age-old mutt of their locality,” acknowledged chief Mahant Sanatan Das with gratitude.

Meanwhile, the mutt has revived its daily discourses for the people while the daily rituals of the presiding deity Lord Madanmohan have been restored.

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