Trinity in gold attire

PURI: The‘Suna Besha’ of divine Trinity attracted a mammoth gathering of 12 lakh devotees, on Monday. 
The rituals started early in the morning with ‘Mangala Arati’, ‘Mailum’, ‘Abakash’ and offering of Gopal Bhog to the deities followed by ‘Sakala Dhupa’.Ornaments of the three deities were brought out from the Ratna Bhandara (temple treasury) by servitors under the guidance of Pattajoshi Mahapatra, the traditional in-charge of treasury, to the three chariots at around 2 pm.

A total of 138 varieties of ornaments weighing over 100 kgs and comprising golden hands, feet, insignias like mace, lotus, wheel, conch besides, huge gold tiaras and a number of special necklaces and garlands were used to adorn the deities in ‘Suna Besha’. The big gold ‘kundalas’ (earrings) in their earlobes, chest guards and jewel-studded forehead ‘chitas’ gave the Siblings a spectacular look. It took about two hours for three sets of dressers working simultaneously on three chariots to complete the Besha by 4 pm, one hour ahead of the schedule. A three-layer security ring of armed personnel was formed around the three chariots and CCTVs were installed everywhere to keep an eye on crowd movement.

Anticipating more crowd this year, the administration had parked the three chariots at a distance from the Lions Gate to create additional space to accommodate more devotees. ‘Darshan’ of deities in ‘Suna Besha’ continued till late in the night after which, the ornaments were taken back to the temple treasury by servitors on duty.Badasinghara Besha of the deities was also observed during which, ‘sayan’ deities were placed on the three chariots on special cots. It is believed that the deities would go on a four-month-long slumber from today on the occasion of ‘Hari Sayan Ekedadhi Tithi’.

The 1978 inventory of ornaments in temple treasury had revealed that there were 367 items of gold ornaments weighing four quintals and 251 items of silver ornaments weighing 14 quintals. Apart from this, there are precious ornaments studded with diamonds, emeralds and other precious stones of rare quality and size. The deities would spend one more night on the chariots for Adhar Pana, a special drink. On Wednesday, Lord Jagannath would present ‘rasagollas’ to his consort Mahalaxmi to appease her to open the temple gate. Late in the night, deities would be escorted into the sanctum sanctorum of the main temple in ‘Pahandi’.District Magistrate Arvind Agarwal, SP Sarthak Sarangi and temple chief administrator PK Mahapatra were present.