This tale is about Purushottam Deva, the king of Odisha. Purushottam used to attend Rath Yatra held in the lunar month of Ashadh (June-July) every year in Jagannath Temple in Puri and he was a devotee of Lord Jagannath, a form of Lord Vishnu.

At the occasion of Rath Yatra, he would sweep the ground with broom with golden handle He was so devoted in his prayers that he considered himself to be a servant of Lord Jagannath who is ruling the place in his absence.

At some distance, there was kingdom of Kanchi which was ruled by the King of Kanchi and Purushottam fell in love with his daughter, Padmavati who was utterly beautiful. In hope of getting her hand, Purushottam send a proposal to King of Kanchi and also invited him to Rath Yatra.

The two kings witnessed the festival from the balcony as the temple was surrounded by thousands of pilgrim. While the festival was ongoing Purushottam told the King of Kanchi about the festival when suddenly the King of Kanchi asked, “Who built this temple and who began this festival?”

Purushottam began narrating the story.

“The Jagannath temple was built by King Indrayumna,” Purushottam replied, “But at that time there was no god in temple. Later, he saw Nilamahadev in the dream and wanted to enshrine him in the temple. To find the idol statue, he sent his minister, Bidyapati to talk to the Savara village chief where he married his daughter, Lalita.”

“Savara villagers worshipped the Nilamahadev deep in the forest but no outsiders were allowed in the shrine so Bidyapati asked his wife for her help. With the help of his wife Bidyapati was taken to the shrine but he made to wear a blindfold so he could not see the way. To find out the route, Bidyapati dropped the mustard seeds all the way without anyone noticing.”

“Slowly, the mustard seeds grew into flowers and Bidyapati led Indrayumna to the shrine using those flowers. But before they could take the statue to the temple, one night, Nilamahadev came to Indrayumna’s dream once again. This time he asked him to make a statue of him out of a log floating in the sea near Nilachala. He is tried of staying in Savara village as Nilamahadev, now he wanted to be known as Jagannath.”

“Indrayumna went back and asked his minister to find the log. Once they found the log, the search for a skilled carpenter began. Many carpenters tried to crave Jagannath face in the wood but their chisels would break every time. After many attempts, they managed to find a carpenter named Ananta Maharana, who assured Indrayumna that he would make the statue in twenty-one days but only with the condition that no one could open the door of the room he is working in.”

“Many ministers were curious about his work and often would stop outside the door to listen to the sound of him working. On one such day, Indrayumna again came to check on the carpenter but this time there was no sound and he became worried since the carpenter had no water or food in the room. He pushed open the door to find the room empty except the unfished statues. From then on, the three unfinished were enshrined in the Jaganath Temple.”

After finishing the story, Purushottam went down the sweep the ground but the King of Kanchi felt that this work was unfitting of his image and went back in anger. He cancelled the marriage between Purushottam and his daughter.

When Purushottam heard about the reason, he felt that King of Kanchi action was not only an insult to him but to Lord Jagannath. In order to seek revenge for this humiliation, Purushottam declared war on Kanchi.

Purushottam gathered his army. On his way of leading the army to Kanchi, he met a milkmaid named Manika. Manika told him two of his men brought a buttermilk and they said he will pay for them. One man was riding a black horse and other man was rising a white horse and they gave him a ring for identification.

Purushottam saw the ring and was shocked, the ring belonged to Jagannath. Jagannath and Balabhadra had went to fight to assist him! Purushottam knew he will win the war now. As Purushottam expected, he won the war and brought back Padmavati as a captive. He asked his minister to marry her off to a chandala (person of low caste) since her father considered him a chandala.

The minister took her but he did not marry her off instead took her to his house where he and his wife took care of her. Slowly months passed by and Rath Yatra came again. The minister took her to Purushottam and said there was no better chandala than him as he took part in the festival.

Purushottam did not get angry, in fact he had loved Padmavati all along and he had long let go of his anger after seeing her again. He married Padmavati in a grand manner.