‘Swargadwara’ is the famous Hindu funeral place in Puri. Swarga means heaven and dwara means gateway. So, swargadwara means the gateway to heaven. The place is of prime mythological importance as it is believed that once any person’s funeral rites are performed in swargadwara, he definitely abodes to the heaven. Here in this article we are revealing the etymology.
Mythology has depicted Puri as the original place of Lord Vishnu. He is present in the name “Jagannath” here today. Hence, the place is of prime importance for which even deities are interested to come for a darshan. In this sequel, once Lord Indra, the King of the devas and the God of rain, had visited the place to have a darshan of his revered Lord Vishnu, i.e. Jagannath. He was in disguise. He visited the Lord and then went to ‘Anand Bazar’, the place where one can get the “Mahaprasad”, the offering to the Lords. It is the divine market inside the temple premises and also has got much importance.
Indra accepted the offering and consumed a full stomach meal from one of the persons in Anand Bazar. Then when tried to leave the place the person asked for money. Indra had not any idea about the human rule of buying even the offering. As per the Godly rule an offering is always free of cost and if he is satisfied he can bless the person who has provided him the offering. Hence Indra left the place.
The person who had provided the offering now chased Indra up to the seashore for the remuneration. Finally when he caught Indra in the seashore, Indra turned in to his original form and explained the person that He is Devraj Indra and he can bless. The person could not believe him and jokingly asked, “If you are really Indra, provide me such a blessing that I can make rain as per my command”. Indra allowed the demand and vanished from that place. The person marked the place wherefrom Indra had vanished.
Later, the person tried that blessing and shockingly found that the blessing is working properly and he is in a position to command where to make a rain. Now only he was convinced that the person was Lord Indra.
The person soon became famous for his amazing quality and rewarded by Gajapati, the King of Puri, whom he described the whole story. The king named the place as swargadwara, from where Lord Indra had set out for heaven and the place became eternal in the hearts of Hindus.
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