[1] According to traditional accounts, prior to his syncretism into Vaishnavism, this was the name of a deity made of sapphire that was venerated by the aboriginal Savara people, whose leader was known as Vishvavasu.
Lalita helped her husband devise a plan:[5] Vidyapati brought a bag of mustard seeds with him, scattering them all along the path to the shrine present in a cave, bearing witness to the deep blue image of Nilamadhava.
[8] In the Skanda Purana, by the time Vidyapati returned to inform the king of the site of the shrine, a great storm had buried the image of Nilamadhava under the sand.
Receiving guidance in the form of a divine dream, a great tree floating in the sea was felled and used to create the three wooden images of the temple, those of Jagannatha, Balarama, and Subhadra.
[9][10] A Nilamadhav Temple is present in the Kantilo town of Nayagarh, Odisha,[11] dedicated to a deity named Nilamadhava, but of uncertain association.