Ayurved practitioners prepare medicines for the ailing deities in Puri. Pictures by Sarat Patra

Bhubaneswar, June 23: Servitors and healers of the deities at the Puri Jagannath temple are offering all traditional cures to get the three divine siblings of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra fit and fine at the earliest. The deities are believed to be suffering from an illness and are right now being cured at a secret site in the temple. On Monday, they were offered doses of herbs and roots, including the Dasamula modaka, which is believed to have strong medicinal properties.

The sickness of the deities, which was caused by a lavish bath on Debasnan Purnima to beat the unbearable heat, has prevailed for 10 days now. But with constant care, the situation is improving and the trio will recover by Saturday, said the healers.

Like every year, four families of healers prepared the Dasamula modaka and submitted 120 ball-shaped medicines to the servitors on Sunday. “This is an ayurvedic medicine offered to the deities on the tenth day from Debasnan Purnima. We use 10 ayurvedic roots of medicinal plants such as neem, pipali and many more,” said Rudra Narayan Mishra, a baidyaraj or traditional healer of Lord Jagannath.

Binayak Mishra, popularly known as Bina Bhaina, another veteran healer and ayurvedic practitioner, said that after the treatment with the Dasamula modaka medicine, the deities recover fast. The medicines change every day and different medicines are prepared by different baidya families assigned with the duty since generations.

“The healers prepare the medicine by cutting and drying in Sun the barks and roots and then heating them with honey, ghee and camphor to prepare the Dasamula modaka. It is a very powerful medicine even for humans. It is offered to five deities including the trio siblings, Sudarshan and Madhab, all of whom are unwell,” said Ramachandra Das Mohapatra, a servitor.

Once the sickness recedes and the deities recover a little, they will discard the white clothes and white flowers that they have been wearing during the anasara or hibernation period.