Not sure how many from Odisha, especially those from our current generation are aware of "Mahima Alekh". Call it a sect or cult, it is an offshoot of Hindu religion primary headquartered in and around Athagath area of the Cuttack district and its bordering district of Dhenkanal.
The first time I heard about this sect was from my mother who told us siblings about one her father's brother who one fine morning vanished from his house. After a few years my mother saw a man frugally attired with unkempt hair who she could barely recognize as he walked to the doorsteps of her home, asking for alms.
It was a moment of deja vu as the voice of the man seemed familiar. Before he divulged his identity, the man exclaimed "MAHIMA ALEKH, MAA CHINHILU MATE ? - "Glory to Alekh, mother did you recognize me ? (In Odisha the women are often addressed as Ma or mother out of affection by elders). Before he did eventually divulge his identity, my mother could recognize him after correlating his face sans beard and long hair to what she saw of him the last time. She could figure it out in her mind faster than any modern Photoshop and clipping Apps used these days to recognize a face with long hair and beard.
Her uncle went ahead, narrating his long journey - how he saw a dream one night goading him to walk away next morning from his house and walk all the way to Joranda, an obscure hamlet in district of Dhenkanal, the heartland of the Mahima Alekh cult. He got indoctrinated into the sect and settled there. In the meantime the curious onlookers from the village gathered to listen to their son of the soil now literally covered with soil and dirt, absorbing every details of his journey to find the truth as a sponge absorbs water. He was their Prince Siddharth who came as Goutam Buddha after discovering salvation. The Alekh Baba (mendicant) stayed in the village for only a few days and went back to Joranda. He continued visiting his native village intermittently to persuade folks into his sect but hardly found any takers. After his death, he was buried following his sect's dictum, not cremated as per the normal Hindu tradition.
During my childhood I occasionally heard a loud voice uttering "Mahima Alekh" in front of our residence in BJB Flats, Bhubaneswar where my father was quartered. My mother had a soft corner for the Alekh Babas due to her family tie. No sooner she heard "Mahima Alekh" than she would pass me a big bowl of uncooked rice and raw vegetables like Brinjals (Eggplants), Plantains, Tapioca, Pumpkins etc. I would rush downstairs and pour the entire content into the JHOLA (the cloth container) of the Alekh Baba.
The sizable amount of alms would always please the Alekh Baba who graciously blessed "ALEKH MANGALA KARANTU (May Sri Alekh bless you). It kept my memory of Mahima Alekh alive for some time until I left home to study Engineering. Out of sight and out of mind I slowly started forgetting about the sect, until last year when I was starkly reminded of them while going through the book - "A TIME ELSEWHERE" by J P Das. It took me on a time machine back to the 19th century Odisha.
Little more than140 years ago, on March 1, 1881 a group of weird looking people, their bodies smeared in dust and dirt, their hands covered with remnants of half eaten food (called AINTHA in Odia) were noticed at the gate of the famous Puri Jagannath temple. The party consisted of several men wearing loin clothes and women who were scantily clad. Shouting "Alekh, Alekh" the men and women enterted into the temple. Before they could force themselves into Lord's sanctum the PANDAs (servitors) managed to lock the door to entrance.
Commotions followed as scuffe broke out between men and women of Alekh followers and the Puri Pandas. A loud mouthed man from Alekh camp climbed on his coworker's shoulder, probing for an opening to the abode of the deities. The man lost his balance and fell down, hitting his head on a stone, fatally injuring himself. The dead man lied on the ground surrounded by his fellow sect members. A crowd of around thousand people, a sizable one during those days gathered to watch the fun (still today a small accident on the road can attract scores who hardly contribute anything other than watching the drama).
Soon the British Assistant Commissioner of Police of Puri, Mr. Clark, arrived at the scene. As the temple was out of bounds for a beef eating Christian, he sent his Sub Inspector Sri Krupasindhu Mohanty to go inside the temple and look into the matter. Upon investigation it was found that the dead man Dasaram was the leader of the Alekh party. He led a group which came all the way from Sambalpur sent out by their Guru who proclaimed that their God Alekh came in his dream and instructed him to carry out a mission of desecrating the Jagannath temple by throwing the half eaten morsels AINTHA food inside the temple considered highly sacrilegious. It was to be followed by taking out the idols of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra and burning them. Catastrophic would have been an understatement if it happened so.
On further investigation they revealed that another party was already on way to supplement the party sent ahead. The British authorities of Puri responded swiftly by locking up the other party consisting of 6 men, 11 women and 11 children, rounding them at Sakhigopal in the outskirts of Puri. The dream of the sect to desecrate our Jagannath temple and burn the idols of the trinity never came true.
The intention of the blog is not to blame an entire sect because of the foolhardy act of a few fanatics more than a century ago. Mahima Alekh is a cult, an offshoot of Hindu religion with many prominent members of the society as its members over a century. They are very much a part and parcel of the history of Odisha about which our current generation of Odias living in home or abroad need to be aware of.
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