Bhubaneswar: Over one lakh devotees, including few from foreign countries, visited Puri on Tuesday to have ‘darshan’ of Lord Jagannath and his siblings on the auspicious occasion of ‘Snan Purnima’.
Beating the heatwave and humidity, the devotees gathered before the Lions Gate of the Jagannath Temple to get a glimpse of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra.
As public were allowed to witness the Snan Yatra after two years, a large number of devotees visited Puri on Tuesday. All arrangements were made for a smooth ‘darshan’, said Puri Collector.
As per the schedule, the servitors escorted the deities in the ceremonial ‘Pahandi’ from Garbhagruha to the ‘Snan Mandap’ (bathing altar) early in the morning. The bathing altar is situated near Ananda Bazar inside the temple complex, which can be viewed by the people from outside the temple.
After performing other rituals of the Lords on the Snan Mandap, the holy ‘Jalabhiseka’ (bathing ceremony) started at about 12.30 p.m. Servitors bathed the deities with 108 pitchers of aromatic water.
Gajapati Dibya Singh Deb, the first servitor of Lord Jagannath, visited the Snan Mandap to pay obeisance to the deities. He performed ‘Chhera Pahanra’ (sweeping of the floor) at the pandal, one of the major rituals ahead of the ‘Hati Besha’, with priests chanting mantras.
Following this, the servitors decorated the deities in ‘Hati Besha’ in the afternoon. To witness the Lords in the ‘Hati Besha’, devotees formed a long queue outside the temple.
(IANS)
