In puri, Ten lakh brave incessant rains to witness Suna Vesha

Over Ten lakh devotees had a real test of their devotion as they thronged the Badadanda (Grand Road) in front of the main gate of the Jagannath temple, braving incessant rains for two hours to witness the famous Suna Vesha of Lord Jagannath, elder brother Balabhadra and sister Devi Subhadra on their individual Raths on Saturday night.

The rains almost paralysed all activites in the city and the dressing of the lords in their unique golden attires was delayed by two hours.

A special set of servitors brought huge gold ornaments and jewelries from the temple treasury to the Raths amid tight security. Three separate sets of dressers took about two hours to dress Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra simultaneously on the three chariots. And the darshan was opened by 6 pm.

Precious jewel-studded gold ornaments of various types and styles measuring about 100 kilo grams were used to dress the deities. The ornaments included giant limbs like feet, hands and insignias like mace, lotus, wheel and conch. The huge gold tiaras besides a number of special necklaces and garlands presented a spectacular look.

The deities too wore big “kundalas”(earrings) on their earlobes besides chest guards all made of gold. The darshan of this special vesha would continue till late in the night when the ornaments would be returned to the temple treasury by the servitors on duty.

In view of possible terror threat to the festival, additional spy cameras and mobile phone jammers were installed at strategic places while a three-layer security blanket was thrown around the three Raths during the Suna Vesha darshan.

The residents faced immense problem in going to their houses, thanks to the faulty traffic arrangements.

The inventory of all ornaments and assets of the lords in the temple treasury conducted by the State Government in 1978 revealed that there were 367 items of jewel-studded gold ornaments in use weighing four quintals and 251 items of silver ornaments weighing 14 quintals. These apart, there were rare size diamonds, emeralds, ruby and other precious stones listed in the inventory. According to temple sources the temple treasury consists of seven vaults while the administration opened one for the inventory and the other six vaults remain unopened till date.

The deities would remain on the Raths on Sunday and enter the sanctum sanctorum of the main temple on Monday night in Pahandi procession. On Sunday, they would be offered Adharpana, a special drink on the Raths.

Lord Jagannath would present Rasgollas to his spouse, the angry Mahalaxmi, on Monday to persuade her to open the temple gate which remains closed for the lords by her order as Jagannath had left for his aunt’s abode with his siblings without informing her.

DG of Police Manamohan Praharaj and temple chief administrator Arabinda Padhee, SP Anup Kumar Sahoo and the Collector Arabind Agarwal were present.