PURI, July 17, 2013: Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi had a surprise waiting for him when he visited the Jagannath Temple on Tuesday. He was shown the signatures of his forefathers, who had visited the temple in 1959, in a logbook maintained by priest Raghunath Gochikar.

The document also showed the signature of Mahatma Gandhi, who visited the temple in 1921.

"Modiji was highly impressed after seeing the logbook, containing signatures of some of his ancestors. My ancestors had then guided Modiji's family members at the temple during their visit in 1959," Gochikar told TOI.

"Modiji sat for a while inside the Jagannath temple and browsed through the logbook. He became very emotional after viewing Mahatma Gandhi's signature and patted my shoulder," Gochikar added. Gochikar had escorted Modi to Gundicha and Jagannath temple on Tuesday and acted as his guide.

Priests in Jagannath temple, who are considered India's first organized tour operators, maintain documents of visitors from Odisha as well as outside the state.

"We call the document as warija. It is not an ordinary notebook. It is rather a book of faith by which we instill a sense of confidence among the visitors from different states. After going through the names of dignitaries as well as names and addresses of the people of their own state, the pilgrims feel safe," Gochikar said. "My family had been attending pilgrims from Gujarat for a long time," he added.

Former President Pratibha Patil too was impressed at being shown the signatures of her ancestors in a document maintained by a priest during her visit to the Puri temple in December 2009.

However, the visit of President Pranab Mukherjee to Jagannath temple this April had triggered controversy as three servitors staked claim over Mukherjee by producing signatures of Mukherjee and his family members. Eventually, the temple administration allowed all three priests to accompany Mukherjee to the temple.

The warija does wonders for the priests during Rath Yatra every year.

In a bid to woo pilgrims from other states, the priests often camp at railway stations and bus stands and show the warija to passengers.

"The renowned names like Pranab Mukherjee, Pratibha Patil, Lalu Prasad Yadav, V P Singh, doctor Rajendra Prasad, Rameshwar Thakur (former governor of Orissa) and Rajnath Singh, among others, are enough to describe the dominion rights of a priest on pilgrims of different states," Balaram Mohapatra, a priest said.
 

Source: The Times of India, DT. July 17, 2013.