Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb Completes 50 years of Kingship; here is the list of Puri Kings
Puri: Exactly on this year Gajapati Maharaj Dibyasingh Deb was coronated as the king of Puri. His coronation was held on July 7, 1970 when he was just 17.
As the Puri King completes his 50 years of Kingship today, we bring you some of his rarely know facts. Here are they:
- The king’s real name is named Kamarnaba Deb.
- He is the eldest son of king Birakishor Deb and queen Suryamani Pata Mahadei.
- He ascended the thrown on the same day after his father Gajapati Birakishor Deb died during the Rath Yatra in 1970.
- He is the “Aadyasevak” (treated as the first and foremost servitor) of Lord Jagannath of Puri temple.
- He is also identified as the Yadav Raja of Puri.
- According to some customs he is also considered to be the living reflection of the Lord. He is the chairman of the Shri Jagannath Temple Managing Committee.
- He never takes part in any cremation ceremony. His family adopts a brahmin boy to do these duties on his behalf.
- His education:
- Schooling from Convent School (1957-1959) in Puri
- College in Rajkumar College, Raipur in Chhattisgarh (1959-1968)
- Graduation in History from St. Stephens College (1969-1972)
- LLB from Law Faculty from University of Delhi (1971-1975).
- LLM from North Western University of Law, Chicago (1975-1976)
- Despite his studies, he made himself available to perform his duties as the chief servitor annually during Rath Yatra ever since he became the king. However, he could not take part in 1975-76 as he was in abroad. Of course he skipped the Chera Pahara ritual during this year’s during Deba Snana festival.
— madhab mohapatra, (@puri_jagannath) July 9, 2020
Here is the list of Puri Kings till now:
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