PURI:Puri witnessed a mammoth gathering of 15 lakh devotees who arrived in the city on Tuesday to witness the ‘Suna Besha’ of Lord Jagannath, Devi Subhadra and Lord Balabhadra.
Ornaments of the three deities were brought out from the temple treasury by servitors 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.
‘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. A three-layer security ring of armed personnel was formed around the three chariots during ‘Suna Besha darshan’ and CCTV cameras were installed everywhere to keep an eye on crowd movement.
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. It is learnt that of the total seven vaults of the temple treasury, only one was opened on Tuesday and the ornaments were used for adoring the deities.
The deities would spend one more night on the chariots for Adhar Pana, a special drink. On Thursday, 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 Arabind Agarwal, SP Sarthak Sarangi and temple chief administrator PK Jena were present.