Puri king abstains from Chhera Pahanra ritual
Bhubaneswar: Puri king Dibyasingha Deb, who is revered as the living entity of Lord Jagannath, abstained from performing his hereditary Chhera Pahanra ritual (sweeping of the floor) on Debasnan Purnima in the 12th century shrine on Friday. Deb, who is also regarded as the first servitor of the sibling deities Jagannath, Balabhadra and goddess Subhadra, attributed his absence to the government’s Covid-19 guidelines.
“I decided to stay home (Sri Nahar or Royal Palace in Puri) in compliance with the government’s Covid lockdown guidelines, which prohibit religious functions and congregations of more than seven persons outside the temple. The guidelines also asked persons above 65 years of age from venturing out of their homes,” the Gajapati Maharaja (66) told TOI.
According to the age-old tradition, the king is always brought to the temple in a palanquin from his palace, about 200 metres from the temple, to perform Chhera Pahanra during Debasnan Purnima. The Maharaja sweeps the floor of the Snan Mandap (bathing altar) with a gold-plated broom. In his absence, Aditya Narayan Mudirasta (17) or only called Mudiratha servitor, officiated the Chhera Pahanra ritual.
Aditya, the youngest servitor in the temple, said he was excited while performing Chhera Pahanra, officially on behalf the Gajapati Maharaja. “It was my first Chhera Pahanra on Debasnan Purnima,” he said.
The Puri king said this was the second time during his tenure when he was unable to perform Chhera Pahanra on Snana Jatra. “The first time was in 1976 when I was in the USA for my law studies. It is a well-established tradition that Mudiratha performs all Gajapati Maharaja seba when Gajapati Maharaja is absent,” said Dibyasingha Deb, who ascended the throne in July 1970 following the demise of his father, Gajapati Birakishore Deb, in the midst of the car festival. Dibyasingha was only 17 then.
Meanwhile, Puri Shankaracharya Swami Nischalananda Saraswati, who was specially invited by the temple administration to have a darshan of the deities on the bathing altar, did not turn up. Unlike the king, the Shankaracharya does not perform any ritual in the temple. Though there was no immediate confirmation about the reason of Shankaracharya’s absence from the festival, sources said he skipped the festival in compliance of the Covid-19 guidelines.