PURI

town, administrative headquarters of Puri district, eastern Orissa state, eastern India, on the Bay of Bengal. The seacoast town is a market centre, rail terminus, and resort; its industries include handicrafts, fish curing, and rice milling. Puri is also a famous Hindu pilgrimage centre, the site of the 12th-century temple of Jagannatha. About two miles away is Jagannatha's Garden House, to which pilgrims pull his image on a chariot during a festival each summer. (The English word juggernaut comes from the name Jagannatha, meaning lord of the world.) Puri, the summer residence of the state governor, has two colleges, an observatory, and a palace. Puri district, 3,922 sq mi (10,159 sq km) in area, comprises a rice-growing alluvial plain in the east and a forested hilly region crossed by the Eastern Ghats range in the west. The forests provide bamboo and sal (a resin source). The district encompasses most of Chilka Lake, one of India's largest, a shallow, saline water body that produces large numbers of fish. Industries include rice milling, metalworking, and weaving. The town of Khurda, the divisional headquarters of the Eastern Railway, has an arts college. Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa, is located in Puri district. Puri fell under British rule in 1803. The Raja of Khurda rebelled in 1804, and there was a peasant uprising in 181718. Many of the district's people died in the 1866 Orissa famine. Pop. (1981) town, 100,942; district, 2,921,045.