PURI: Ahead of Snan Purnima, Daita servitors on Saturday entered Shree Jagannath temple to perform the rituals. Daily rituals of deities have been rescheduled for the preparation.
They would fix ‘chenapatta’ (body armour) to the bodies of the deities to bear the physical stress during the ‘pahandi’ procession from Ratna Simhasan to Snan Vedi (bathing altar) located in the temple complex on Snan Purnima on Monday.
Snan Purnima is a major ritual before the annual Rath Yatra, scheduled to begin on July 4. After 108-pitcher aromatic water bath, the deities would recline to ‘Anasar ghar’ (sick room) supposedly suffering from fever for a fortnight and public ‘darshan’ will remain closed.
During the period, Vaidya (temple physician) treats them with herbal medicines and the deities are kept on fruit diet. The Trinity, after convalescing from fever, would give ‘darshan’ to devotees a day prior to festival of chariots.