Snan Purnima to go ahead, with rider
Bhubaneswar: The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration on Thursday decided to go ahead with June 5 Debasnan Purnima, a key festival in the run-up to Rath Yatra, with very limited number of servitors.
Since the extended lockdown 4.0 still prohibits religious congregations at public places, the temple administration will take the final decision whether or not to allow participation of devotees after the lockdown is lifted on May 31.
“Unlike previous years, we will not allow large number of servitors to perform Debasnan Purnima rituals in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic. We have requested different Nijogs (associations of servitors) to select minimum numbers of servitors, who can perform the rituals. If they share their names by May 25, we will examine the list and release the final names. The servitors, who will perform the rituals, will undergo Covid-19 test,” temple’s chief administrator Krishan Kumar said after holding a meeting with district officials and representatives of different nijogs at Puri.
On Debasnan Purnima, the giant wooden idols of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra are carried in arms by servitors in Pahandi to Snan Mandap, an elevated bathing platform inside the temple, facing the Grand Road. According to the tradition, deities are given ceremonial bath on the auspicious occasion and later confined in isolation (kept in Anasara Ghar) for a fortnight, supposedly suffering from fever after the grand bath. Devotees are normally not allowed for darshan of the deities during the isolation period.
The temple that has been shut to devotees since March 20 due to Covid-19 pandemic may find it difficult to maintain social distancing norms among servitors during the Pahandi procession of the deities from the sanctum sanctorum to the bathing mandap.
Usually a sea of devotees gather on the Grand Road to watch the bathing ritual of the deities on Snan Mandap. “We will take a decision whether to allow participation of devotees or not this time only after the revised guidelines are issued after end of May 31 lockdown,” Puri district collector and temple’s deputy chief administrator Balwant Singh said.