Tales of Lord Jagannath: The Story of Dasia Bauri

Lord Jagannath Tales 3

Dasia Bauri was an untouchable who lived in abject poverty.  He was great devotee of Lord Jagannath.  Once, people from his village were going to the Jagannath Temple at Puri. Since Dasia was too poor to go along with them and had nothing else to offer to his Lord, he gave them a coconut. He requested them to offer the coconut to Lord Jagannath at Aruna Stamba outside the main gate. The villagers laughed at his suggestion but acceded to his request.

Next day there were amazed to find only the shell of the coconut exactly at the same spot where they had left the offering. This proved beyond doubt that the Lord had received the offering given by  Dasia.

After that every year Dasia Bauri would send a basket full of ripe mangoes for Lord Jagannath. The next day the priests would discover the kernels at the altar, a sure sign that the Lord was accepting his loyal devotee’s affection.

One night Dasia and his family had nothing to eat. Lord Jagannath appeared at the gate in disguise asking for food.  Dasia’s wife Malati could not find even a morsel to feed the hungry guest. Finally she could manage a grain of rice and offered it to the visitor.  The guest accepted her offering and declaring that he was satisfied left.

That night the King of Puri had a dream. It was revealed to him that Dasia Bauri and his family were all  going to sleep hungry because there was not a single crumb of food in the house. The King arranged for food to be sent every day to Dasia’s home.

To this day, just after the bhog is offered to the divine trinity, the first offering is sent to Dasia Bauri.

Read the Tales of Lord Jagannath

These stories have been republished from the book Tales of Lord Jagannath by Ramendra Kumar. This book is available on Amazon.in and has been published by:
B K Publications Pvt. Ltd.

The opinions shared by the writer is his personal opinion and does not reflect the opinion of Learning and Creativity Magazine.