Puri: After remaining without food for two days following a faceoff between the servitors and the temple administration, the Lords of Jagannath Temple were finally offered ‘khichidi’ late on Tuesday.
The sibling deities were deprived of food on Monday as the bhog prepared by the servitors could not be offered due to inordinate delay in the rituals. Since the bhog still remained inside the temple kitchen on Monday, the Suaras and Mahasuaras in charge of preparing the bhog could not cook.
Following intervention by the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), 150 labourers were engaged to remove the bhog from the temple kitchen. The stale bhog were later taken to the Koili Baikuntha where they were buried. The work which began at 11 am, was completed at 10 pm.
It may be mentioned that the servitors prepare Mahaprasad for more than 15,000 devotees in the temple kitchen everyday.
After the stale bhog were removed, the servitors consecrated the temple kitchen. This was followed by a series of rituals like the Rosa Homa, Surya Puja, Dwarapala Puja and Gopala Ballabha which were completed at 10.50 pm.
The servitors later offered khichidi to the Lords after performing the Sakala Dhupa rituals at about 1.20 am.
The confrontation between the servitors’ bodies and the SJTA led to the inordinate delay in the rituals of the Lords on Monday over the directive of the Orissa High Court that only Palia Saveyat can enter into the sanctum sanctorum of the temple to perform rituals. But as the Palia servitor, who was to perform rituals of the Lords inside the sanctum sanctorum as per the directive of the Orissa High Court, did not turn up as he was desecrated.
Since there was no alternative arrangements, the rituals were delayed further .
Meanwhile, the temple managing committee discussed the disruption in rituals at a meeting in the evening on Tuesday.
Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, SJTA chief administrator Pradip Jena and Puri Collector Arvind Agrawal said while the SJTA is scheduled to file an affidavit in the Orissa High Court on April 19, an appeal would be made to the court to reconsider its earlier directive regarding the entry of Palia sevayat inside the sanctum sanctorum of the Jagannath Temple.
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