Balasore, May 1: A few Jagannath temples of the district with the support of a group of artists have embarked upon revival of an almost lost tradition of pati dian (portrait made of patta chitra) as followed at the main temple in Puri.

Pati dian is worshipped in the Puri Jagannath temple during the period of anasar (sickness) after the grand bath of deities on snana purnima. The Trinity are nursed in a sick chamber, and the devotees cannot have Their darshan. During this period, the devotees visit the shrine to have the darshan of pati dian and worship them.

On the day of the snana yatra, Lord Jagannath, His elder brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra are bathed with 108 pots of sacred water. After the grand bath, the deities are believed to fall ill and kept in a sick chamber called anasar ghar. During this sickness period lasting for a fortnight, devotees are debarred from seeing the deities. Instead, three patta chitra paintings are displayed for the devotees' darshan.

The devotees are allowed to have a glimpse of the deities (known as nabajauban darshan after they recover from the "illness" with the ayurvedic treatment. Then they embark upon a nine-day journey to the Gundicha temple, riding chariots.

Three artists, headed by Kesu Das, have come forward to revive the age-old tradition at the Jagannath temples in this district. The other two, who have been associated with the job, are Prabir Patra and Divya Ranjan Rout.

"For the first time, some temples of the district have evinced interest in reviving the lost tradition, and we, the artists, are helping them. Some temples have recognised us as pati dian chitrakar (painter)," said Das.

There are Jagannath Jew temple at Nilgiri, Jagannath Jew temple at Sasanga in Balasore sadar, Banthia Jagannath Jew temples at Motiganj and Police Lane in Balasore town, Sri Patitapaban Budha Jagannath Jew at Dublagadi in the district.

Sketches of the deities are drawn on patta chitra, according to the Odishan art culture.

Lord Jagannath is worshipped in the form of Yangya Narayan, Lord Balabhadra as Ananta Basudev and Goddess Suvadra as Bhubaneswari.

While Kesu Das will draw the sketches of Yagna Narayan, Prabir Das and Divya Ranjan Rout will paint the portraits of Bhubaneswari and Ananata Basudev on the clothes.

Jayant Mardaraj, a descendant of the Nilgiri royal family, said: "The tradition of worshiping pati dian has almost vanished from all Jagannath temples in the district. I have heard that the practice used to be followed in our temple at Nilgiri, but it is lost with the passage of time."

"Three years ago, we have hosted 32 veshas (attires) of the Lord here. At that time, pundits and scholars also discussed about pati dian. It is a good and encouraging move by some of the temples in the district," said Subasini Jena, a social worker.