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Come any national holiday like Independence Day, Republic Day or Gandhi Jayanti, people throng this temple in Odisha’s Sambalpur district to worship Mahatma Gandhi.
Yes, you heard it right.
There is a temple dedicated to the apostle of peace and harmony at Bhatra, a sleepy village under Rairakhol tehsil in Sambalpur district. People call it ‘Gandhi Mandir’.
Here people worship a bronze idol of Mahatma Gandhi by offering flowers. Instead of chanting any vedic mantras, they chant Bapu’s favourite ‘Ram Dhun’- ‘Raghupati Raghab Rajaram Patitapabana Sitaram.’
The priest at the temple recites the ‘Gita’ twice a daily-in the morning and evening.
The temple is unique for yet another fact - which is while normally Brahmins are engaged at the temples to do rituals, here at the Gandhi Mandir, a Dalit does so.
People from various parts of Odisha and nearby states like Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand visit this temple on a daily basis to see for themselves a temple where the Bapu instead of any God or Goddess, is being worshipped.
The footfall is unprecedented on Gandhi Jayanti, October 2.
Sources said, the temple was built by former Rairakhol MLA Abhimanyu Kumbhar. The foundation stone was laid in 1971 by the then Revenue Divisional Commissioner (Northern Division). It took three years for the temple to be completed. It was inaugurated in 1974 by the then Chief Minister of Odisha (Orissa) Nandini Satpathy.
Kumbhar passed away in 2020.
According to locals, there is a brief story associated with this temple’s establishment. The former MLA, who was born in 1928, had an opportunity to meet Mahatma Gandhi during the latter’s visit to the area in 1940s. He was then so inspired that he decided to build a temple in his memory.
