History
The Indian Section of the Theosophical Society is a component part of the Theosophical Society which was founded in New York, USA on 17 November 1875 by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge and others, and was incorporated under the laws of British India on 3 April 1905 with its Headquarters at Adyar, Madras, India.
The Indian Section of the Theosophical Society was chartered on 17 November 1890 effective from 1 January 1891. The Indian Section of the Theosophical Society was registered on 31 August 1903 with its Headquarters at Varanasi. It is the National Society for India to carry out within its jurisdiction the objects of the Theosophical Society.
UTKAL THEOSOPHICAL FEDERATION
UTKAL in ancient time it was known as KALINGA. The ancient kingdom of Kalinga which was invaded by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC resulting Kalinga war coincides with the borders of modern day Odisha. The modern state of Odisha was established on 1st April 1936, as a province in British India, and consisted predominantly of Odiya speaking regions. The regionis also known as UTKAL and is mentioned in India’s National Anthem, “JANA GANA MANA”. Cuttack was the ancient Capital made by kingAnantvarmanChodagangain 1135 AD after which the city was used as capital of Utkal/Odisha by many rulers, throughout the British era until1948. Thereafter Bhubaneswar became the capitalof Odisha.
Theosophical movement in Odisha also started a little late, but one can find references from the book “COLLECTED WRITTINGS” [Caves and Jungles part] of H. P Blavasky where she mentioned about the temples of Bhubaneswar. Probably she had visited Bhubaneswar in 1850s and observed the architectural beauty of temples of Bhubaneswar. After that in the year 1903 the Founder President H S Olcottvisited Cuttack then Capital of Odisha and conducted many theosophical meetings in Odisha more particularly at Cuttack. The Bro. JanakiNath Bose a very senior advocate of Cuttack formed the Cuttack Theosophical Lodge in the year 1916.In the year 1925 the Cuttack Lodge became defunct. In the year 1928 RayBahadurGopal Chandra Praharaj revived the Cuttack Lodge which is one of the active theosophical Lodge now as well then. In the year 2016 the Cuttack Lodge celebrated 100 years of its formation.
Position of Odisha in theosophical Map
In the year 1936 the Odisha consisted of Cuttack, Puri and Balesore districts only. Southern parts of Odisha was under Madras Presidency and Western parts of Odisha under Central Province. Whereas other parts of Odisha are under princely states under the control of different Kings. After independence of India the geographical area of Odisha was demarcated afresh. There is no record before us to establish any theosophical activities in Northern, Western and other parts of Odisha during that period. But there were theosophical lodges in the parts of southern Odisha which was continued for some time under Telugu Federation.
Formation of UTKAL FEDERATION
In the year 1965 the senior TS members of Odisha have decided to separate the Lodges under Odisha from Bengal and to form a new Federation. Bro. Pedro Oliveira in his book N. SRI RAM—A life of Beneficence and Wisdom at page 87 mentioned –“In 1965 he [N. Sri Ram] visited Bhubaneswar in may in order to preside over the annual Conference of the Bengal Theosophical Federation. On that occasion, he also inaugurated the UTKAL THEOSOPHICAL FEDERATION.” So the Utkal federation was formed on16th May 1965. Bro. Dr. Ramachandra Pattanaik was the first President of the Federation. Bro. Narayan Mohapatra was the first Secretary of of the Federation and joint secretary was Bro. Surendra Nath Das.