Puri Deities Appear in Golden Avatar

BY: SUN STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Lord Jagannatha
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Photos: Sampradaya Sun

Jul 12, 2011 — JAGANNATHA PURI, ORISSA — Devotees in the millions congregated at the temple town of Puri to view Lord Jagannath and His siblings, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra in ‘golden avatar' on Their respective chariots in front of the Jagannath Temple on Tuesday. The occasion was Suna Besha festival, where the reigning Deities put on huge quantities of gold ornaments. Braving a heavy downpour, pilgrims queued up to catch a glimpse of the glittering Deities.

Suna Besha is an important annual ritual performed after the end of Rath Yatra. "Pilgrims had smooth darshan of the Deities till 11pm," said the temple's Public Relations Officer, Laxmidhar Pujapanda.

Devi Subhadra
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According to legends, Suna Besha was introduced during the era of King Kapilendra Deb in 1460. "He had conquered another King and brought huge quantities on gold on 16 elephants to Puri. He donated all the gold to the Jagannath Temple," said Rabindranath Pratihari, a senior Jagannath Temple priest.

During the shining occasion of Suna Besha, the Deities wore gold jewelries weighing nearly 208 kg (2 quintal 8 kg), a temple source said.

Lord Baladeva
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The gold ornaments are stored at the temple's treasury (bhandara ghar). Escorted by a posse of armed policemen and temple officials, at least twenty-five bhandara mekap priests (store in-charge) brought the required gold from the artery onto the chariots.

"During the reign of Kapilendra Deb, the Deities used to wear gold of nearly 138 designs. But these days, the Deities are donning only twenty or thirty types of designs," Pratihari informed.

Lord Jagannatha's Procession
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Meanwhile, asked whether all the types of gold designs that were prevalent in the past are still intact, Pujapanda said, "Almost all of them are intact. Whenever required, we do repairing. Raw gold donated by pilgrims is used to repair the ornaments of Deities."

On the other hand, the temple administration claimed to have taken measures to promote and popularise Suna Besha, which unlike Rath Yatra, is yet to be spread in every nook and cranny of the country.

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"Rath Yatra has earned the distinction of becoming a pan-Indian festival. Pilgrims from far off places come here to participate in the Rath Yatra only. While a few stay till the Bahuda Yatra, many pilgrims leave the place before the occasion of Suna Besha. Mostly people from Orissa throng to witness the besha," said a temple official. "But this time, we tried to spread the besha message through websites and information brochures to draw more crowd," the official added.

A toned-up security arrangement has been made for safe and smooth conduct of the festival. "Even though history has not witnessed any attack on the Lords during the Suna Besha, we will not take it casually. Strong police arrangements have been made," said a senior police officer.