Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday announced that the suffix "Dham" would be removed from the official nomenclature of the Jagannath temple in East Midnapore's Digha.

Suvendu's announcement, triggered by an official communication from his Odisha counterpart Mohan Charan Majhi, brought an end to a controversy that began in April last year when then chief minister Mamata Banerjee consecrated the temple and named it "Digha Jagannath Dham".

The government had spent ₹250 crore to build the shrine.

Devotees across the globe consider the 12th-century shrine at Puri in Odisha to be the only Jagannath Dham.

"I want to make it clear that the earlier Bengal government had approved the Jagannath Dham Cultural Centre. Though it was technically built as a cultural centre, the suffix 'Dham' was inserted later. I accept the letter of the Odisha chief minister, and the word 'Dham' will be officially removed from the nomenclature," Suvendu said at Nabanna in the presence of Puri BJP MP Sambit Patra, who met him as a messenger of Majhi.

"In the government resolution, the monument was mentioned as a cultural centre, and that is why we are removing the word 'Dham' from it. However, the puja and rituals in the temple will continue as usual. I want to convey this message to our Jagannath devotees in Odisha as well as crores of devotees across the globe," he added.

Adhikari instructed chief secretary Manoj Agarwal, who was present at the news conference along with Patra, to initiate the official process for the name change. He also said that the authority managing the temple complex would be asked to comply with the order.

Mamata had inaugurated the Jagannath temple in the seaside town of Digha in East Midnapore on April 30 last year and announced that it would officially be known as "Digha Jagannath Dham". After her announcement, several boards and placards were put up to name the temple as Jagannath Dham, Digha.

The announcement immediately drew strong criticism from Odisha, and several communications were sent from different quarters, including the Odisha government and servitors of the Shri Jagannath Temple in Puri.

Within days of Mamata naming the Digha temple as Jagannath Dham, protests erupted across Odisha, with people from various sections of society objecting to the decision and demanding the removal of the "Dham" suffix from the newly built temple.

Patra thanked Adhikari for the decision to drop the suffix and said the earlier government's move had hurt the sentiments of people in Odisha as well as Jagannath devotees in Bengal and other parts of India and abroad.

He has noted that there are four Dhams in the country, as identified by Adi Shankaracharya, and Jagannath Dham in Puri is one of them.

Several senior servitors of the Jagannath Temple had maintained that even if Jagannath temples were established elsewhere, they couldn't be called "Jagannath Dham", "Shri Purushottam Kshetra", "Shri Kshetra", or "Neelachal Dham", as those names are exclusively associated with the 12th-century shrine in Puri.

After Puri King Gajapati Dibyasingha Deb objected to the use of the word "Dham", Majhi wrote to Mamata Banerjee on May 6, 2025, urging her government to drop the term. However, the Bengal government did not act on the request. After the BJP came to power in Bengal, devotees and members of the public urged the Odisha government to raise the issue again with the new administration.

In his letter to his Bengal counterpart, Majhi said: “ I am writing to draw your kind attention to an issue that concerns the religious sentiments of millions of devotees of Mahaprabhu Shree Jagannath across Odisha and beyond. The naming of Jagannath Temple complex at Digha as “Digha Jagannath Dham” has generated considerable concern among devotees, religious scholars and various socio-cultural organisations.”

Suvendu said that Majhi had conveyed to him that the use of the word "Dham" for the Digha temple was inconsistent with Indian and Sanatani traditions, and that was why the Bengal government had decided to remove the suffix.

"The entire premises will now be known as the Shri Shri Jagannath Cultural Centre, as that was the name approved in the official tender and cabinet resolution. The temple itself will continue to be known as the Jagannath Temple, where puja and rituals will be performed in accordance with tradition and Sanatan culture," said the Bengal chief minister.

Shortly after Adhikari's announcement, Odisha law minister Prithviraj Harichandan said: “We are thankful to the Bengal chief minister for taking such a quick decision for the protection of Jagannath culture. It will build a new era of cooperation and friendship between Bengal and Odisha. The decision of the earlier government had caused a lot of pain to the crores of Jagannath devotees across the globe. We welcome the two decisions of the government to drop the word Dham and do puja and other rituals as per the established traditions of the Puri Jagannath Temple.”

Congratulating Suvendu for accepting their demand, senior servitor of Puri Jagannath Temple, Jagannath Swain Mohapatra, said: “There is only one Dham that’s Jagannath Dham, Puri. No attempts should be made to dilute the Jagannath culture. People can set up Jagannath Temple anywhere in the globe, but no one should try to infringe on its culture.”

Noted scholar on Jagannath culture and eminent writer Asit Mohanty said: “According to the scriptures, there is only one Jagannath Dham, that is, Puri. Digha has been branded as Jagannath Dham because of the ego of a particular leader. Now, good sense prevails, and the new regime has announced to drop the Jagannath Dham from Digha.”