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Accordingly, Vidyapati was taken to Nilakandara where he
saw Nilamadhava. Later, when Vasu Savara offered food to
the deity, he did not take it as usual to the king's
dismay. At this, a divine voice was heard. It said, "we
would no longer continue to be worshipped by you. Oh!
Vasu, we will change the present Nilamadhava form and
assume Daru form. We shall be worshipped in the temple
by Raja Indradyumna".
The king came back from the blue cave with a very heavy
heart losing his deity. Vidyapati too bade farewell to
his wife and father-in-law and started for Malava.
Having heard the story, King Indradyumna started with
his retinue for Utkal to see Nilamadhava. On reaching
Nilakandara, he found it vacant. But a voice from the
air told him to construct a temple on Nilasaila (Blue
Mountain).
Hearing this, the king ordered the construction to
begin. On completion of the temple, the king went to
Brahmaloka to invite Brahma to consecrate the temple.
But, Brahma being in meditation, he had to wait for nine
Yugas. The temple thus got buried in sand in his
absence.
In the mean time, a new dynasty came to rule at Utkala.
Galamadhva, a king of that dynasty, detected the buried
temple. He was considering installing images in the
temple when Indradyumna with Lord Brahma appeared before
him. Both the kings had a tussle over the ownership of
the temple. However, Lord Brahma decided in favor of
Indradyumna and asked him to install deities in the
temple.
Now, the king was at a loss as to where to find the
deities from. Therefore, god told him in his dream that
he would be floating in the sea in the form of a log of
wood. Then Sage Narada assured Indradyumna that Vishnu
would appear to him in the temple form of three wooden
images.
When a big tree, radiant with light was seen floating
in the sea, Narada told the king to make three idols out
of it and place them in a pavilion. Indradyumna got
Visvakarma, the architect of Gods, to build a
magnificent temple to house the idols and Vishnu himself
appeared in the guise of a carpenter to make the idols
on condition that he was to be left undisturbed until he
finished the work.
But just after two weeks, the Queen became very
anxious. She took the carpenter to be dead as no sound
came from the temple. Therefore, she requested the king
to open the door. Thus, they went to see Vishnu at work
at which the latter abandoned his work leaving the idols
unfinished. But a divine voice told Indradyumana to
install them in the temple.
The three idols represent the god Jagannath, his
elder brother, Balabhadra and their sister, Subhadra.
The wooden idols being worshipped are renewed during
special occasions. This wooden idol prepared from a log
of wood floating on the ocean finds a mention in the Rig
Veda, where it is referred to as Purushottama.
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