Sarala Dasa created the story of Jagannath in the retelling of the Mausala (Maushali in Odia) parva (book 16) of Odia Mahabharata.
With the advent of kali age, Shree Krishna decided to relinquish his earthly incarnation. All his kinsmen, the Yadavas perished through fatricidal fighting and Krishna was slain by an arrow from hunter Jara, who mistook his feet for the ears of a deer. And Krishna dies. Then Arjuna finds Krishna's body on the seashore. As Arjuna and Jara prepare to cremate the body, they realize that all trees have disappeared as they do not want to serve as fuel for the fire that'll burn Krishna's lifeless body. Eventually the body is cremated, but Krishna's pinda (residue or relics) remains unburnt. They was advised by aakash-vaani (a voice from the sky) to cast in the ocean. Then it floats back in the form of a log of wood using which King Indradyumna carves the images of Jagannatha, Balabhadra, Subhadra and Sudarsan which are enshrined in Puri.
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