BHUBANESWAR: Though festivity rent the air on the eve of Debasnan Purnima, the euphoria was missing in Puri as the government geared up to hold the major ritual in the run-up to the Rath Yatra at the Jagannath Temple on Thursday without the participation of devotees for the second year in a row.
In view of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government had earlier announced that Debasnan Purnima, Rath Yatra and Bahuada Yatra would be conducted by imposing prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) in Puri “The arrangements are in place.
Only a limited number of servitors will perform the rituals.
We appeal to the devotees to stay in their homes and watch the festival live on their TV screens,” district collector (Puri) Samarth Verma said.
Meanwhile, the district administration heaved a sigh of relief as the around 726-odd servitors, who have been assigned the task of performing the rituals on Thursday, tested negative for Covid-19.
The results of the RT-PCR tests of 233-odd temple staff, too, returned negative.
“We are hopeful of timely completion of all rituals.
Since Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb will not be able to perform his Chhera Pahanra seva on Thursday amid the Covid pandemic, Mudirasta servitor will do so on behalf of the Maharaja,” Shree Jagannath Temple Administration’s chief administrator Krishan Kumar said.
In accordance with the tradition, the sibling deities of Jagannath, Balabhdra and Subhadra would be taken out of the sanctum sanctorum to a mandap inside the 12th century shrine for a ceremonial bath on Thursday.
Later, the deities would be made to appear in Hati Besha or elephant attire.
The deities would be confined in isolation (kept in anasara ghar) for at least a fortnight, owing to supposed fever after the grand bath, and will undergo ayurvedic treatment until they fully recuperate for the Rath Yatra on July 12.
While the main deities would remain out of bounds for 15 days, their representative images would be painted on tussar (patti dian) and worshipped during the period.
“Pattachitras are intrinsically linked with the temple tradition.
During the anasara period, patti dians or pattachitra paintings of the Shree Jagannath as Ananta Narayan, Maa Subhadra as Maa Bhubaneswari and Balabhadra as Anant Basudev are worshipped in the Jagannath Temple,” a senior temple official said.
The chitrakar artisans on Wednesday gave finishing touches to the patti dian paintings, which would be taken to the temple on Thursday.
“We first soaked a silk cloth in water from which a double-layered canvas was created.
Colours prepared from natural elements have been used to depict the representative images of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra.
Most of these colours were prepared by grinding mollusc and conch shells and then adding pigments of flower extracts or other natural ingredients,” Anant Maharana, an artist, explained.
He added that each of the patti dians has been created on cloth measuring 5.5 feet long and 4 feet wide and is decorated with images of birds, floral motifs and other designs in traditional patta painting.