PURI: The Sri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) on Thursday filed an FIR against Amazon India at Simhadwar police station for unauthorised sale of Nirmalya Mahaprasad on its shopping portal.
Administrator (development) of SJTA, AK Jena, in the FIR, stated that the temple has not permitted anyone to sell the Mahaprasad online but the Nirmalya is found to be sold at an exorbitant rate on Amazon.
On November 30, a servitor of Sri Jagannath Temple had lodged a police complaint against Amazon for selling the ‘Nirmalya Mahaprasad’ of Lord Jagannath on its portal. The complainant, Sambhunath Khuntia said the Mahaprasad was available on Amazon for Rs 129.
Administrator (Rituals) Jeetendra Kumar Sahu said as per the record of rights, only the ‘Suaras’ (temple cooks) are authorised to sell the ‘Nirmalya Mahaprasad’ at the Aruna Stambha of the shrine. “We are consulting legal experts to prevent recurrence of such acts in future,” he said.
Nirmalya is the dried rice Mahaprasad made in the temple. Unlike cooked Mahaprasad which can at best be preserved for a day, Nirmalya can be consumed for several days. When the cooked Mahaprasad ‘anna’ (rice) stock remains unutilised for the day, it is taken to ‘Nirmalya Khala,’ a place in Koili Baikuntha in the temple garden and dried there under the sun. Once dried, it becomes Nirmalya and is made available to devotees in red cloth packets, also known as ‘Kaibalya’.