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Puri City Information |
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Puri, the abode of Lord Jagannath, is situated in the
eastern part of Orissa and is one of the four holy dhams
of Hinduism. Puri is also called "Sri Purusottama Dham"
or "Martya Vaikuntha", the abode of Lord Vishnu on
earth. It is located at a distance of 60 kms from the
state capital Bhubaneshwar. |
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General
Information
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Area |
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16 sq. Km(City) Dist-300Sq. Km |
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Altitude |
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Sea Level |
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Population
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1,60,000(2001) |
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Temperature |
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Summer
: Max-
39.9°C Min- 20.0°C
Winter: Max/ Min-17.1°C |
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Rain Fall
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135.23Cm |
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Language Spoken |
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Oriya(General), Bengali, Telugu,
Hindi, English |
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Clothing
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Light cotton in summer and Light
woolen in winter |
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Pick Season
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During Car Festival (June-July), October to February
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Here, the most spectacular part of Orissan culture, cult and
comic faith is the Jagannath Dhaam or Purusottam Puri, upholding
the centuries old tradition and religious faith, still bright
and waxing. It attracts people from far and wide known as a
Dhaam or Tirtha to the Hindus, famous as the abode of Lord
Jagannath literally meaning, the Lord of the Universe. |
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History
Like many other parts of Orissa , in the Puri District ,
river gravels and slits may be included among the
various Pleistone formations. But no formationof this
period has so far yielded any type of pre-historic stone
tool though they are found in a large number from
similar formations (river gravels,secondary laterite
pits and murrams) in the districts of Dhenkanal,
Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Sundargarh. So whatever
information we have regarding the pre-historic cultures
of this districts are mainly derived from different
types of stone tools collected from the surface.
ORIGIN OF THE NAME
The District has been named after its head quartes town,
Puri.According to Cunningham the ancient name of this
town was Charitra mentioned by the Chinese piligrim
Hiuen Tsang as Che-li-ta-lo. But the restoration of the
word Che-li-ta-lo as Charitra and its identification
with the town of Puri are open to doubt. The importance
of the town as a seat of Vaisnavism increased when
Chodaganga Deva constructed the temple of Purusottama
Jagannath and installed the images of the deities.
Thereafter , it became famous as the abode of
Purusottama and was popularly called purusottama Kshetra.
In the drama Anargharaghava Natakam attributed to
cir.9th century A.D. we find the name Purusottama
applied to this town . In the Nagari Plate of
Anangabhima III of the Saka year 1151-52 i.e., 1229-30
A.D. , the place is called Purusottama Kshetra . This
name in the form of Purusottama Chhatar or only in the
form Chhatar was used by the Mughal , the Maratha as
well as the early British rulers in their official
records . even in Yoginitantra and Kalikapurana the city
is reffered to as Purusottam . Puri region was also
known as Utkal.
The name Purusottama Kshetra was also for
sometimes known as purusottama Puri and as the word
Purusottama Kshetra was contracted into Kshetra or
Chhatra so also Purusottama Puri was expressed in the
contracted form Puri . Infact , in many early British
records this town is known by the name Pooree. In modern
times Puri has become the most popular of all the other
names of this town. |
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