Puri, June 25: Servitors of the Jagannath Temple here today said they would go for a video-recording of the rituals of the rath yatra to ensure that Orissa High Court’s order is implemented in letter and spirit and none other than the sevaks associated with the rituals climb the chariots.
Working president of Daitapati Niyog Ram Chandra Dasmohapatra said: “We will film the rath yatra on June 29 at our own cost to ensure that the court’s order is honoured. We will allow the king and the Puri Shankaracharya to climb the chariots, while we will stop other people from climbing the chariots.”
Earlier, it was a common practice to allow those who come with the Puri King and Shankarachya in their respective processions to climb the chariots. However, this year, it seems that the servitors are in a mood of confrontation.
They are not happy with the King and Shanakaracharya as they had insisted that the temple administration should not allow devotees to climb the chariots. The high court had intervened and directed temple administration to accept the recommendation of the Shankaracharya on debarring devotees, except the servitors associated with the rituals, to climb the chariots.
The daitapatis have also rejected Shankaracharya’s letter to the temple administration yesterday in which he had argued for allowing all the sevaks to climb the chariots before it is being pulled.
“We will not tolerate any more interference by the Shankaracharya on the management of the rath yatra. Enough is enough,” said Dasmohapatra.
Yesterday, the daitapatis had boycotted an important ritual of the festival by not going to the Puri King’s palace to inform him about the health of the Trinity.
According to the rituals, a 22-member delegation of daitapatis, whose services are essential to ensure smooth conduct of the car festival, was supposed to visit the palace of Puri King Gajapati Dibyasingha Deb to break the good news that the deities were recovering from the fever they caught after the Snan Purnima.
However, in defiance of the rituals, the daitaptais refused to meet the King. Instead, they sent a three-member delegation of Patimohapatras, belonging to another class of servitors, to the King.
Sensing trouble during the rath yatra, special officer Suresh Mohapatra, who was appointed to ensure that the event in conducted peacefully, today rushed to Puri to hold meeting with the daitapatis. “I will meet them and appeal all sections to co-operate in conducting the rath yatra.”
