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As often as it
passed the line, the waters were forced back, and the temple escaped without
injury."14
Tamluk has also a famous Vaishnava temple and a Buddhist one. According to ancient legend
king Yudhisthira’s horse for Ashwamedha Yajna followed by Arjun was stopped at
Tamluk. The Yuvaraja of Tamluk seized the horse and there was a great fight between him
and Arjun. Krishna, a friend of Arjun, intervened and the sacrificial horse was
released. The Raja of Tamluk erected a Vaishnavite temple with the image of Krishnarjun.
The floods in the river Rupnarayan had washed away the old temple but the image was saved.
It was installed in the present temple built by the Raja of Tamluk about 400 year’s back.
The Buddhist temple at Tamluk has the figure of Hariti, the mother of demons,
venerated by the Buddhists.
15 The following account of the origin was given by I-tsing at the end of the seventh
century A.D.--"She had made a vow in a former birth to devour the children of
Rajagriha, and was accordingly born as a Yaksha, and became the mother of 500 children. To
nourish these, she each day took a child (boy or girl) of Rajagriha.
People having told Buddha of it, he hid one of the Yaksha's children, called 'the loved one'. The mother, having searched everywhere, at last found it by Buddha's side. On this the Lord addressed her as follows: "Do you so tenderly love your child? But you possess 500 such. How much more would persons with only one or two love theirs?" On this she was converted and became a Upasika, or lay disciple. She then inquired how she was to feed her 500 children.
14. Bengal District Gazetteers, Midnapore by L.S.S.
O'Malley, pp. 222-223.
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