10 interesting facts about kala Pahada
1 . Kalapahad “The Black Mountain” was a black character in the history of Odisha & the Hindus.He was a brahmin who later changed his religion & started destroying all the religion places of Hindus.
2. A General of Bengal Governor Suleiman Kirrani, named Kalachand Roy or Kala Pahad fell in love with the daughter of kirrani and got married on the condition that he converted to Islam.But repentance came who wanted to come back to Hinduism. For this he came to Puri to convert himself again to Hinduism-but the orthodox pandas of Puri Jagannath temple refused him to accept as Hindu In tune with the dictates of this new faith, he now believed that idol worship was a heathen activity, and went about destroying all Hindu idols in the region and embraced the new faith with the passion of the convert.
3. He invaded Orissa/Odisha in 1568 and marched up to Puri. Kaala Pahaad wanted to burn the idols of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra, and in one of his attacks on the temple at Puri he did succeed in wrenching the idols from the temple. He threw the idols unceremoniously on the street and kicked them around a bit before carting them all the way to the banks of Hooghly and set fire to them. However, the ’brahmapinda’ or the core salagram stone (considered a sacred stone that is alive) had been removed from the idols beforehand by the priests who had anticipated the attack and had been hidden at Sonepur. When the priests of Lingaraj temple at Bhubaneswar apprehended his attack they filled the sanctum sanctorum with husk.
4. Kala Pahad tried his best to take it out, but in the end set fire to the dump. After he left, the priests put the fire out, but by then the sivalingam had cracked and been disfigured.
5. After the defeat in the Battle of Tribeni, Sulaiman Karrani was forced to make peace. He realized that he would never be able to conquer Bhurishrestha unless he could defeat Rajiv Lochan Ray in the battlefield, which was next to impossible. So he invited him to his palace and trapped him into a love affair with his daughter. He offered Rajiv Lochan Ray to convert to Islam to which he offered to convert his daughter to Hinduism and marry her. However, King Gajapati Mukunda Deva was opposed to such a matrimonial alliance and wrongly decreed that conversion to Hinduism was illegal. Enraged, Rajiv Lochan Ray converted and married Karrani’s daughter taking the name of Kalapahad (Black Hill – the destroyer). He led Karrani’s revenge over Mukundadeva and attacked Orissa. He defeated Mukundadeva and sacked major towns and religious places of Orissa/Odisha including Hijli,Cuttack,Jajpur,Sambalpur,Konark,Ekamrakhsetra,Puri etc. in 1568.
6. It is said , in 16th century Kala Pahad , the general of the King of Bengal, attacked Odisha/Orissa ,defeated and killed the last Hindu emperor,Gajapati Mukunda Dev, in the 16th century. He ravaged some of the famous temples of Midnapore, the Khirachora Gopinath temple of Balasore, the Khiching temple of Mayurbhanj, the temples of Konark Bhubaneswar, Puri, Jajpur & Cuttack. Then he attacked Sambalpur.
7. Myth says that he had his camp along with his soldiers here in a ground.It is said that, Goddess Samleswari, after whom Sambalpur city is named as Sambalpur, came in the form of a woman selling butter milk. This, they purchased , drank & died. He was buried right there and a ‘tomb’ was built . The legend goes that Kala Pahad was defeated due to Maa Samaleswari. Kala Pahad’s tomb and those of his soldiers are located on the outskirts of Sambalpur.
8. Madala Panji language is Oriya/Odia and was recorded in Oriya/Odia and Telugu script, preserved in the Manuscript Library in Madras, which speaks about the story regarding image of Nila Madhaba or Lord Jagannath of Udra desa, as Orissa/Odisha was known in Middle Ages. It seems to have re-written during 16th century when the king of Khurda had newly installed the images after destruction made by Kalapahad,Muslim general of Nawab of Bangal( authenticity needs citation ).
9.The most popular theory about the root of the fall of Konark temple rests with the Kalapahad, the general of Bengal Sultan Sulaiman Khan Karrani.
10.Kalpahad was buried in Sambalpur, Odisha. Large number of tombs believed to be those of the dead soldiers of Kalapahar are located in a mango grove near Samaleswari College building on the bank of river Mahanadi in Odisha. The tomb of Kalapahad and the graves of his soldiers were destroyed in 2006 by Hindu nationalists.
(Source : From different Portals & Blogs )
