The 21st Dhenkanal Heritage Walks (DHW) was successfully held today with the participation of more than 80 heritage enthusiasts from across the State.
The work started from the Balaram temple of Dhenkanal. Suresh Prasad Mishra, Convenor DHW explained about the 16 the Century temple. The speciality of this temple is its unique stone statue of Lord Balaram with Sri Krishna, Rukmuni and Shubhadra.
In the second phase of the walk, the group reconvened at the premises of Kapileswar Temple situated in the valley of the Ramiala river of the Kamakhyanagar sub-division. Prafulla Kumar Panigrahi, who is now 83 years old, explained about the folklore and stories associated with the temple.
The temple was built by the Deo family of Jagannath Prasad in Kalingan architecture (Rekha Deula). There is no “Parshwa Devata” as all have been stolen. The temple architecture is simplistic and most of the temple deities are broken or stolen. Like all Shiva temples’ origin related to milk offering cows to the Lingam, this temple has a similar story.
BIRASALA AIRSTRIP
The walkers also visited the Birasala Airstrip known as Dhenkanal Airstrip. This airstrip is a World War II airstrip and bunkers are also seen. Dr Malay Ranjan Pati, a founding member of DHW welcomed the walkers there and explained the history and current state of operation of the airstrip.
The airstrip has a special place in the history of Odisha. In the past, it witnessed the landing of then Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and political leaders like Biju Patnaik and Sanjay Gandhi, among others.
It was lying abandoned for years when an Indian Air Force unit in West Bengal evinced interest to use the airstrip. The officials of the unit also visited the place May 16, 2019. Prior to this, a team of the Union Civil Aviation Ministry’s Flight Training Institute had visited the airstrip.
The Flight Training Institute owned by GATI is using the airstrip as a training centre for pilots. Birasal is also village of Captain Rajkishor Mishra, who took interest in its revival as he took up the matters with former chief minister Biju Patnaik.
The heritage lovers finally reached Sanskar School at Rahani where they interacted with around 600 school children sensitizing them about heritage and culture and our role to conserve it. The participants were also delighted to see the “gurukula parampara” of the school.
Today’s memorable journey of history under DHW saw heritage enthusiasts from Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Kendrapada, Dhenkanal College and Mathakaragola College joining for the walk. Prominent participants in today’s heritage walk included Bikas Roy Choudhury and Kailash Sahoo from Bhubaneswar and convener of Jagatsinghpur Heritage Walks Biswaranjan Dehury, among others.
