Puri: Devotees have started arriving in Odisha’s pilgrim town of Puri, which is readying for Debasnana Purnima of the Lords of Shree Jagannath Temple on Wednesday.
The ceremonial ‘Pahandi’ ritual of the sibling deities will begin at around 5 am.
Debasnan Purnima is a key festival in the run-up to Rath Yatra. On this day, Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra along with the idol of Lord Sudarshan are escorted from the sanctum sanctorum of the 12th-century shrine to Snana Mandap (bathing altar) in a ‘Pahandi’ (procession). The mandap is an elevated platform on the temple premises facing east overlooking the Bada Danda. To be able to bear the stress during the procession, the deities are made to wear ‘Senapatta’, a body armour made of ‘Baula’ wood, by the Daitapatis who take charge of the deities from regular priests the previous night.
It is here on the mandap that they are given a ritualistic bath after the sevayats perform a complex set of rituals. The deities will be bathed with 108 pitchers of aromatic water drawn from ‘Sunakua’ (golden well) and blended with aromatic herbs, sandalwood paste, kesar and karpur at around 12.20 pm.
‘Chhera Pahanra’, the ceremonial sweeping, will be performed by Puri King Gajapati Maharaj Dibyasingha Deb at around 3.30 pm, following which deities will be decked up in ‘Hati Besha’ (incarnation of Lord Ganesh). ‘Sahan Mela’ or public darshan will be allowed from 7.30 pm.
Daita servitors will then escort the deities into ‘ Anasar ghar’ (sick room) where the deities would recline in bed for a fortnight, supposedly suffering from fever. During the sick period, the temple Baidya (physician) would treat them with herbal medicines and put them on a fruit diet served by Daita servitors.
Public ‘darshan’ of the deities will remain closed till Nabajouban ‘darshan,’ a day prior to the annual Rath Yatra slated for June 27.
Speaking to the media earlier, Puri SP Vinīt Agarwal had said that 70 platoons of force along with 450 officers and four SP-rank officers will be deployed in the city for smooth conduct of the annual event. “The focus is on crowd management, traffic regulation and ground control. The forces will be deployed inside and outside the temple and at the sea beach. 34 platoons with an SP will be stationed inside Srimandir to streamline darshan of the deities, 24 platoons and 2 SPs outside for crowd control, 8 platoons with one SP for traffic management, and one platoon with an Additional SP for public assistance,” he said.
Barricades have also been set up for orderly darshan during the ceremonial bath of the deities. AI-based surveillance cameras, linked to a new integrated control room in the city, will be used for real-time monitoring. “The stretch from Medical Chhak to Srimandir will become a no vehicular zone from the evening of June 10,” he added.