A patti dian of Ananta Narayan representing Lord Jagannath. Picture by Sarat Patra

Bhubaneswar, June 25: As the deities of the Jagannath temple are recuperating after a sickness of over 10 days, the sanctum sanctorum of the temple now will be ready to receive them on Saturday.

But until then, devotees will continue getting a glimpse of another form of the deities, the patti dian.

These are a form of traditional painting wherein the three deities are depicted as huge traditional paintings made of striking colours. They are a set of three pattachitras each of which represents one of the three siblings.

Created by artists of the chitrakar clan — the hereditary artist servitors of the temple, the patti dian is painted on freshly prepared tussar cloth.

The chitrakars make the three patta paintings just a fortnight before Debasnana Purnima when the idols are given a luxurious bath and subsequently fall sick.

“Under the guidance of Budha Moharana and Ananta Moharana, the chief artists of our clan, we start the work on Jestha Amavasya (no moon day) and complete the entire painting in a period of 15 days,” said Debadutta Moharana, an artist.

“It is an age-old seba (service) of the members of chitrakar family and we make sure we submit the painted images of the deities in time despite all odds,” he said.

Newly made silk cloth is first soaked in water out of which a double-layered canvas is created. On this, colours prepared from natural elements are used by the artists to depict unusual forms of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra.

“For patti dian, various shades such as black, blue, green, red, brown are used. Most of these are created by grinding mollusc and conch shells and then adding pigments of flower extracts or other natural ingredients,” said on of the artists.

Of the three paintings Ananta Narayan represents Lord Jagannath, Ananta Basudev is Lord Balabhadra and Bhubaneswari is Goddess Subhadra.

Each of the patta paintings is created on a cloth 5.5feet long and 4 feet wide and is decorated with images of birds, floral motifs and other designs in traditional patta painting.

Devotees visiting the temple right now worship these painted images of deities.

“This is a very different and striking form of the three deities. We love to get a glimpse of the patti dian at least once during the anasara or hibernation period of the deities since this is displayed only during this phase throughout the year,” said Purnima Tripathy, a devotee.