Dadhivamana and Balabhadra Worship in Odisha: Bidurcation of Daru Devatas

The Jagannath trinity in Puri was well established by the time of Ananghbhimadeva III. The trinity incorporated three major cults: Vaisnavism, Saivism, and Saktism on the hill of Nilachala Mountain at Puri. However, the Dadhivamana cult, i.e., the worship of the singular deity of Jagannatha, continued into the medieval period. The emergence of the Balabhadra cult as a form of Sesa Deva was most likely an attempt to emphasize the Saiva element in the Jagannatha cult. Moreover, the fact that Balabhadra cult was an adaptation of the Bhagavat-Puranic Balarama Cult, which was associated with agriculture and Kadamabari rasa, and was also considered to be elder to Krishna, the Balabhadra Cult and its popularization in Medieval Odisha was most likely a recognition of the expansion of agriculture among the tribes and the wine culture of the Hindusied Odisha at a time when Vaisnavism preached vegetarianism. This paper intends to analyze the diffusion and development of those cult practices out of Puri between the sixteenth century and nineteenth century CE.