Jagannath Patra makes rakhis for the divine siblings ahead of Rakshabandhan in Puri. Picture by Sarat Patra

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 9: Brothers and sisters all over the country are gearing up to celebrate Rakhshabandhan this Sunday. So are the deities of the Jagannath temple in Puri.

Puri resident Jagannath Patra and his family have created special rakhis for the divine sibling on the occasion.

The festival will be celebrated grandly at the holy town. Patra, a member of the Patara Bisoi community, is the rakhi maker for the divine trio.

The 65-year-old has been making four rakhis for Lord Jagannath and Lord Balabhadra for decades now.

“I learnt the craft from my father. We begin the work about 10 to 12 days before Rakhshabandhan and complete them a couple of days before the festival. We create four rakhis, one to be tied on each hand of the two brothers of Goddess Subhadra,” he said.

His 38-year-old son Santosh Kumar Patra helps Jagannath craft the rakhis.

“The temple administration provides us with paata cloth every year. We collect these and dye them in five colours — blue, red, green, yellow and white — and then dry them for a couple of days. We cut these coloured cloths and sew them into concentric circles stitched one atop another with the lowest disc being the largest,” said Santosh.

The base of each of the four rakhis is a circle of a 10-inch diameter. The subsequent circles stitched on them are smaller and finally a colourful central sphere of cloth at the top makes the rakhis look pretty. The thread of the rakhis is also special.

Rakhi is also observed as the birthday of Lord Balabhadra, who is considered the lord of farmers.

Hence, Rakhshabandhan, also known as gamha purnima, is also celebrated as an agricultural festival and rakhis are tied to cattle, too. While people selling rakhis across the state are happy with the sales, post offices and couriers had busy days delivering rakhis.

Despite the craze of social networking, Rakhshabandhan still draws many to the special speed post counters.

“Rakhshabandhan keeps us busy since there is huge demand for speed post delivery, which ensures that the rakhi reaches in three days anywhere in India,” said Pinak Bed, a speed post official. Many sisters also prefer to send their rakhis to brothers through private courier services.

In the markets this year, stone and silver is the most sought-after when it comes to rakhi designs. There are the regular colourful silk threads, too. However, the sale has not been extremely profitable owing to the rain and flood situation.

“We just managed to not make losses and that is enough during such a grave situation this year,” said Pappu Behera, a rakhi seller.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik has announced that he would not celebrate Rakhshabandhan this year owing to the floods in the state.