Puri: The presiding deities of the Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri were adorned with the traditional Hati Besha or Gajanan Besha (elephant attire) on the occasion of Snana Yatra on Monday, drawing lakhs of devotees to the holy town for the rare annual darshan.
Lord Jagannath and his elder brother Lord Balabhadra were dressed in the Hati Besha, while their younger sister Devi Subhadra was adorned with the Padma Besha (Lotus attire). The attire was offered after the deities, along with Lord Sudarshan, were ceremonially bathed on the Snana Bedi (bathing altar) of the 12th-century shrine.
The ritual followed the traditional Chhera Pahanra ceremony performed by Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb, who ceremonially swept the Snana Bedi with a golden broom. Temple servitors then decorated the deities in their distinctive attire.
According to temple tradition, Lord Jagannath was bathed with 35 pitchers of sanctified water, Lord Balabhadra with 33, Devi Subhadra with 22, and Lord Sudarshan with 18, completing the ritual with a total of 108 sacred pitchers.
The Pahandi procession, during which the deities were ceremonially carried from the Ratna Bedi to the Snana Bedi, began at around 5 am and concluded at 7:29 am. The ceremonial bathing rituals were conducted between 12:20 pm and 2 pm, followed by the Gajapati Maharaja’s Chhera Pahanra at around 3:30 pm before the Hati Besha ceremony.
Elaborate security arrangements, including barricading from Market Chhak to Chhamudia, were made by the administration to regulate the movement of the massive gathering of devotees along the Badadanda (Grand Road).
According to temple tradition, the deities are believed to fall ill with fever after the ceremonial bath and are taken to the Anasara Gruha, where they remain in seclusion for 14 days for ritual recuperation. During this period, devotees are not permitted to have darshan of the deities.
The deities will reappear before devotees on the occasion of Nabajauban Darshan after the Anasara period, ahead of their annual nine-day sojourn to the Shree Gundicha Temple during the world-famous Rath Yatra.
The Hati Besha has a deep religious significance. According to temple lore, Lord Jagannath once appeared in the form of Lord Ganesha before Ganapati Bhatt, a devout worshipper of Lord Vinayaka, on the Snana Bedi in the 15th century. Since then, the deities have been adorned in the elephant attire every year after the Snana Yatra. The elephant attire is traditionally provided by the Raghab Das Math and Gopal Tirtha Math of Puri.
