LAKSHMI PURANA: A VOICE OF FEMINISM, DEVOTION AND SOCIOCULTURAL NORMS OF ODISHA WITH A VISION OF SOCIOLOGY

Abstract

Focusing on the 15th century Odia Lakshmi purana by Balaram Das, this article shows how some  societal norms and traditions are being explored and elaborated in this sacred text. This paper  aims to show how a rice ritual was recounted and intertwined with Jagannath sankruti (tradition)  and reinterpreted the position of caste. It’s a claim that because of Lakshmi purana, all people  regardless of caste were allowed to enter Jagannath temple. Thus it played a significant role in  Odisha’s socio-cultural change. So here we can say that there is a glimpse of M.N.Srinivas’s  concept of sanskritization in Lakshmi purana.