Dom Perignon to Dom Pada

As a young guy growing up in Cuttack my spare time was often spent going through the volumes of Junior Britannica or in-flight magazines of British Airways that my cousin used to get for us during his annual visits from the UK.

One of my main attractions in these magazines would be the section on Beverages and Colognes. I would be fascinated by brands like Yves Saint Laurent, Dunhill, Prada and of course Dom Pérignon.

So a couple of years back when I heard the name of a place called Dom Pada, it brought to my mind the sparkle from the house of Moet & Chandon that has now become the preferred fashionista tipple. I wondered could there be a connection between the two?

Dom Pada or to be more correct Kalika Prasad as it is locally known is on the south bank of the Mahanadi where the mighty river meanders sharply to the south and then again to the north just before being checked by the Munduli Barrage.

I had further heard anecdotes from one of my uncles about Kalika Prasad and the tragic tale of the local monarch drowning himself without leaving a male heir.

So one fine winter afternoon I set off to visit Dom Pada along with Sushree and my in laws. As we crossed the Mahanadi at the new Naraj Barrage 500 m downstream from the Old Naraj Weir it brought back memories of Duck Shoots and Angling picnics that would bring us to the old weir as a teenager.

Back in those days Naraj was a sleepy place where one could take ones car on to the old Weir and the sunsets were extremely picturesque.

Once over the barrage, the road snaked up a small hill as we crossed the Old Naraj IB to the right, still standing as a mute spectator to the ravages of time that has brought a HT power tower into its compound, driving onwards towards the mighty Mundali Barrage.

Beyond Mundali we drove along the south bank of the Mahanadi on the road to Banki. We were now in ‘Tomato Country’. Miles after Miles, the fields on the right and the left were full of plants laden with the ripe balls of red ready for harvest.

Soon, we were nearing our destination and after taking directions from a few locals we turned right, towards the river bank, driving straight through a thickly wooded patch. As the jungle cleared, there appeared a magnificent old building perched of a rocky crag growing out of the clear blue waters of the Mahanadi.

Immediately a thought crossed my mind - how would it feel to be perched on the building’s ‘chatri’ sipping the famous bubbly on a stormy monsoon night with the waters of the river splashing on the rocks below.

Once the feeling sunk in, we made a beeline to the old Devi Temple on the ground of the old haveli. As I walked along in the shade of the woods, I came across an old cenotaph built by Raja Amarendra Mansingh Bhramabar Rai in memory of his beloved wife Rani Pritam Kumari.


The temple was shrouded by the largest banyan tree that I have come across and the silhouette of the tree against the clear blue waters of the river presented a breath taking site that I could not stop from capturing in my camera.

After paying our obeisance to the mother goddess, we proceeded towards the ferry crossing. As we hopped on to one of the country boats there was no stir in the air, no stir in the river, The Boat was still as she could be.

But once we settled down and the motor was winched she lurched forward and a gust of cool breeze broke our sweat. We glided past the majestic crag with rocks to the left and the vast expanses of the Mahanadi to the right.

We came up to the old banyan tree perched on top of the rocky banks and heard the boatman call Beach Ahoy! Low behold ahead of us was a pristine river beach lapped by the gurgling waters of the mighty river.

By this time the sun was dipping fast beyond the horizon and the boatman was being harried to get back to the ferry crossing to take one last trip of commuters across the river. Though we were enjoying the breeze and the sight of the crimson ball dipping behind the hills in the horizon, we had to turn around and end our cruise.

Cruise over, as we trudged back along the rock strewn banks to our car, a bright idea struck us. Why not ask permission from the current owner of the haveli to have a look around. I was keen to go up the chatri on the crag and soak in the atmosphere.

The current owner – A chalk mine owner was kind enough to allow us in. He kept on ranting how painstakingly he had ‘renovated’ the building to make it habitable. To my dismay, to him renovation meant defacing the old building into a modern house. All the beautiful arches were plastered up. The once open verandahs had been shuttered up with brick walls from floor to ceiling. Only the chatri pavilion was intact. I couldn’t wait to get on to it and once up there was rewarded with the most breathtaking site of our visit.

It dawned on me that though I could not find any connection of this place to the famous bubbly, at least for me this was the most beautiful place to uncork the famous Dom.

A connection I did find – Though Dom Pada has no connection with the house of LVMH, I did find an interesting connection with the Quaid-e-Azam.

It goes back to my earlier reference to the drowning of the ruler. With the tragic death of the monarch, the queen resorted to adoption of a male heir to further the lineage. This adoption being done by a Hindu widow was challenged as being invalid. Mr. Jinnah was hired as a counsel by the queen and was successful in convincing the Privy Council that a son is the spiritual requirement of a Hindu man and a widow can adopt a male heir if she has been asked to by the deceased male. This case is a leading case in Hindu Law and is still referred to by Indian Courts. This case was reported in the AIR 1933 PC 155.