Puri, March 29: Thousands of devotees today congregated outside the 12th century Jagannath temple in the city as the banajaga yatra (the journey to search for the sacred wood to make the new idols of the Lord and His siblings), the first step towards Nabakalebar, began today.
Devotees assemble outside Jagannath temple in Puri on Sunday. Picture by Sarat Patra
Nearly 150 servitors, wearing the red and yellow turban headgear with sandalwood paste smeared on their faces, began the most important journey amid chanting of ' Jai Jagannath' to find out the right sort of wood for the new idol of Lord Jagannath and His siblings.
The servitors came out from the shrine in four batches amid tight security. When they just came out from the temple, thousands of devotees and sankeertan troupes escorted them. The people organised Bhajan Melas on both sides of the road.
While Haladhara Das Mohapatra, the team leader, came out in the first batch, the last one was senior servitor Jagannath Swain Mohapatra. He took the lead of the sevayats belonging to Shree Jagannath. All the daitapatis were sent off by their wives from their home after performing the rituals. They would only return after the wood for making new idols is found.
Swain Mohapatra, the main servitor of Lord Jagannath, said: 'I hope everybody forgetting their previous enmity would join hands to make the Nabakalebar festival a successful one. We will only return after finding the right wood to make the new idols.'
He also announced to pass on the baton of being the number one servitor (known as badagrahi of Lord Jagananth) to his son Raj Kumar Swain Mohapatra, 32. 'The younger generation should know about the Jagannath cult and the rituals associated with it. This is the right occasion to transfer all the responsibilities.'
Being the main badagrahi, he has to perform all rituals related to Lord Jagannath during rath yatra with all austerity.
As soon as the servitors came out from the shrine, all of them went in a procession to the palace of Puri King Dibyasingha Deb. After performing the rituals there, they proceeded towards the Jagannath Ballava Mutt, 1km from the temple. At midnight, they will leave Puri. On April 3, they will perform the rituals at the Maa Mangala temple at Kakatpur, and the next day, they will set out in search of the sacred tree to extract the wood.
The exercise is likely to be over by May 15. The rath yatra, during which the new idols of the deities will be on display, will be held on July 18. The last banajaga yatra was held in 1996.
Gayatri Devi, 75, who had come from Mayurbhanj to witness the yatra, said: 'I have never witnessed such a yatra even though I had witnessed rath yatra a number of times. Now, the new deities will replace the present one. I have developed an emotional bonding with the present idol. Though I feel happy about the banajaga yatra, it is also painful.'
Though the banajaga yatra was scheduled to start at 5.15pm, it was delayed by nearly one-and-a-half hours. Law minister Arun Sahoo, tourism and culture minister Ashok Chandra Panda, food and civil supply minister Sanjay Das Burma, Nabakalebar committee chairman Maheswar Mohanty, former chief secretary Subas Pani and chief temple administrator Suresh Chandra Mahapatra were present.
