The Legend Of ‘Padma Besha’ As Jagannath & Siblings Dress Up For Love Of Devotee Tonight

Puri: The sibling deities at Jagannath Temple here will be attired in ‘Padma Besha’ on Wednesday evening, which falls between the new moon day of Magha and Basanta Panchami.

It is observed during the ‘Bada Singhara’ ritual and the deities adorn the Besha all through the night.

According to Jagannath culture expert Naresh Dash, the Lords seated in Ratna Singhasan (bejewelled throne) of the temple are covered with winter wrappers, called Ghoda Lagi, at night to protect them from excessive cold from Sukla Sasti of Margasira month till Basanta Panchami. On Wednesday, the wrapper is blue in colour and on Saturday, it is black during the Ghoda Lagi period.

Since it is falling on Wednesday this year, the Lotus dressing will done on blue wrapper covered around the idols after the Chandan Lagi (sandal paste offering)  ritual, he added.

The Legend

A devotee of Jagannath, Sadhu Manohar Das from distant village Sahapur reached Puri on the amabasya (no moon) day of Magha month after walking for days together. On his way, he had collected some beautiful hundred-petalled red lotus flowers from a tank along the road to offer to the triad. He tied them in his gamuchha (red towel) and continued his journey. However, when he opened the knot on reaching the temple, he found that some flowers had already dried up whiel other had rotten. The Sevakas at the temple thrashed him for taking rotten flowers to the Lords. He was later rescued by people of Badachhata Mutt in an unconscious state, according to the Orissa Review.

At night, Gajapati Maharaja of Puri had a dream in which he saw the Lord asking him to go to Manohar Das and offer those flowers to Him. The Gajapati narrated his dream to Rajaguru, who then took Manohar Das to the temple. He asked the Sevakas to offer the lotus from his gamuchha to the Lords. Much to their surprise, the flowers had become fresh again and emanated divine and sweet fragrance, it added.

As a reminder of this incident and the supreme love of a devotee, the Lords are adorned in Padma Besha on the day fixed.

The deities are decorated with “mukhapadma”, “kundal”, “chita”, “tahiaa”, swans, “shankhas” and “chakras” prepared from thermocol.

Badachhata Mutt also offers Padma Khiri (sweet pudding) to the Lords on this day. It is distributed among the devotees the next day, when they also get to have a darshan of the sibling deities in this Besha.