Bhubaneswar, June 9: A Biswakarma who is working on the new idols of the Puri Jagannath temple deities has said that they will be ready by June 15.

The sculptors of the new idols, known as biswakarmas, are doing their work amid prayers and chants of epics conducted by devotees across the state. The work began last Friday with a symbolic approval from Gajapati Dibya Singh Deb to the swotriya Brahmins, who performed rituals around a yajna or a holy fire at Koili Baikuntha, the site for construction of idols inside the temple.

The team of biswakarmas comprise 10 of the most experienced carpenters who have also constructed the chariots during the rath yatra. They work all day inside the temple and return home at night.

"We will build the idols within 11 days, following every traditional detail. By June 15, the idols will be ready," said Bijay Mohapatra, the chief carpenter of Lord Jagannath's chariot.

Though the idols will be ready in 11 days, they will first get painted before the naba jauban darshan prior to the car festival on July 18.

On June 15, the Gajapati will conduct purnahuti in the ongoing yajna. On this occasion at midnight, the chief servitor will carry out ghata paribatan or transformation of divine souls from the old idols to the new ones. The old idols will then be buried at Koili Baikuntha.

The next day, the new idols will be ready for secret rituals, said Surya Narayan Rath Sharma, a Jagannath culture expert. " Anasara is the annual phase of hibernation before rath yatra, when the three deities fall sick. During Nabakalebar, the first phase of Anasara ends, with the burial of old idols. In the second phase, the new idols are massaged with the same medicines and oils that the old idols would be treated with every year. This ritual of lepa sanskara will be done on June 16. Then, maha anabasara will begin for the idols," he said.