AKSHARA BRAHMA FORM OF, LORD JAGANNATH, THE MOST BELOVED DEITY OF THE SABARAS. (Established on 18th June 1936

**AKSHARA BRAHMA FORM OF LORD JAGANNATH, THE MOST BELOVED DEITY OF THE SAVARAS** *(Established on 18 June 1936)*)

S. P. Mangai gives the following account regarding the origin of the script. The Savara people used to worship Daru-Brahma (the wooden image of God). However, when Lalita, the Savara princess, fell in love with a Brahmin and revealed to him the secrets of the worship, the Brahmin won over the Lord. The Lord vanished and no longer responded to the prayers of the Savara people.

Then the Savaras said:

“Wonderful! You do not listen to me, and you do not respond to me. But you listen to the Brahmin, who is an outsider. Alright, I say, from today I will offer you only blood and liquor. When you come back again to us and teach us to be wise and good, we will worship you then only with due sanctity.”

The Savara people took such a resolution, and since then they had been sacrificing cocks, goats, buffaloes, and, according to the tradition, even human beings during certain rituals. They worshipped, paid obeisance, and then poured blood and liquor over the deity's head.

However, after many days, at the end of the Age of Kali, the Lord came back and said:

“Now I have come to you, not as Daru-Brahma, but as Akshara-Brahma (the Alphabetic Image of God). Worship me in this form. I will be visible on the Matter Bnom Vijnan Hills.”

The Savaras then went there and saw the twenty-four letters appearing before them in a vision. A shrine was subsequently built on that site, and the worship of Akshara-Brahma commenced from that day.

Mangai thus spiritualized his invention of a Sora script and established a new religious order designated as Matter Bnom Dmri—the religion that opens the eyes and makes people good and wise. His script, symbolizing Akshara-Brahma, is enshrined on a hill near Marichiguda, about 20 kilometres from the nearest town of Gunupur.

The image is in the shape of “Om” in the Odia character and contains the 24 letters, 9 numerals, and a crest inscribed upon it. During the past forty years, Mangai has proselytized a considerable number of his tribesmen and established sub-centres throughout the Sora-speaking region to promote literacy in the script.

Particularly in the Padampur–Gunupur area, centering around the villages of Marichiguda and Dumbasara, literacy has spread to a recognizable extent. The script is, in fact, being used for intra-community communication and literary activities.