Bhubaneswar: Ahead of the annual Rath Yatra, 380 kilograms of sacred Basunga Pata (silk thread) was dispatched on Tuesday from the Odisha Cooperative Tassar & Silk Federation (Serifed) office at Shaheed Nagar in Bhubaneswar to the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration in Puri.
Minister for Handloom, Textiles and Handicrafts Pradip Bal Samanta flagged off the consignment after special puja and rituals were performed.
Basunga Pata holds immense religious significance and is used during the Rath Yatra of the Chaturdha Murti and other major rituals of the Shree Jagannath Temple. It is also used in the preparation of Vijay Dori, sacred threads (Paita), Rakhi and various ritual items associated with the deities.
Serifed has been supplying Basunga Pata to the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration since 1981. This year, the federation supplied 380 kilograms of the sacred silk thread.
The Basunga Pata is prepared from mulberry silk cocoons produced mainly by tribal silk farmers in the Mohana and R. Udayagiri blocks of Gajapati district. The thread is dyed using gum extracted from Katha (catechu) fruit sourced from Koraput district.
The cocoons are procured by Serifed and processed at the Silk Production and Technical Upgradation Centre at Nuapatna in Cuttack district before being converted into the sacred thread.
Officials said the specially prepared Basunga Pata is meant exclusively for the religious rituals of the Shree Jagannath Temple and is not used for any commercial purpose.
Among those present during the flag-off ceremony were Commissioner-cum-Secretary of the Handloom, Textiles and Handicrafts Department Guha Punam Tapas Kumar, Additional Director (Silk) Surya Narayan Pattnaik, Serifed President Bhagirathi Nanda, Secretary Sangeeta Minz and other senior officials.
