Puri Jagannath Temple To Remain Closed For 4 Hours Today

Puri: Jagannath Temple in Odisha’s Puri town will remain out of bounds for devotees for four hours on Wednesday for ‘Banaka Lagi’ or ‘Srimukha Sringara’ ritual of Lord Jagannath and his siblings.

The darshan of the deities will be restricted from 5 pm to 9 pm. Only a small group of servitors will be allowed inside the ‘garba gruha’ or sanctum sanctorum for the rituals, sources said.

Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra, and Goddess Subhadra along with Lord Sudarshan will adorn a new look after a special make-up ritual on Ratnabedi’ (pedestal) inside the sanctum sanctorum. The ritual is performed seven to eight times a year.

According to cultural experts, certain rare forest products are used to prepare the four types of colours- ‘haritala’ (red), ‘hengula’ (yellow), ‘sankha’ (white), and black and these are then applied to the face of the deities on this occasion.

It is pertinent to mention here that Chhattisa Nijog of Srimandir had recently decided to impose a complete ban on the use of smartphones inside the temple, following incidents of devotees secretly capturing photos and videos and uploading them on social media.

Apart from devotees and security personnel, servitors will also not be allowed to carry smartphones inside the shrine.