PURI: The alleged use of surplus neem wood (or Daru) of Shree Jagannath Temple of Puri in the carving of the deities of Digha Jagannath Temple took a new turn with the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) swiftly getting into action to find out the truth behind this issue.
On Saturday, chief administrator Arabinda Padhee convened a meeting of all traditional establishment heads like Deula Karan, Tadhau Karan, Pattajoshi Mahapatra, Chhatisha Nijog president and Bhitarchhu Mahapatra, and discussed the matter with them.
Later in the afternoon, he discussed the issue with Badagrahis (four Daita servitors in charge of each deity during the Rath Yatra), who participated in the 2015 Nabakalebar ritual and recorded their statements.
However, only three Badagrahis attended the meeting. They all suggested a thorough probe into this most sensitive issue involving the emotions and religious sentiments of the devotees.
The four Badagrahis are Jagannath Swainmahapatra of Lord Jagannath, Haladhar Dasmahapatra of Lord Balabhadra, Ramachandra Dasmahapatra of Devi Subhadra, and Patimahapatra of Lord Sudarshan. They all had participated in the last Nabakalebar ritual.
In the evening, the chief administrator met the three Biswakarmas (traditional hereditary carpenters) of the three chariots who shaped the Darus into specific deities during the Nabakalebar ritual in 2015. They stated the shaping of deities’ forms was done in secret, and no one was allowed to go out of the temple till the work was finished.
“All the surplus neem wood was kept in the store under the guidance of the Daitapatis. The stored Daru sizes are not suitable to construct Bigrahas with a height of 2.5 ft to 3 ft,” said Bijay Mahapatra, the Biswakarma of Nandighosh, to the media after the meeting.
The chief administrator issued notices to the president and secretaries of all nijogs (associations of different types of servitors) to submit in writing, by 5 pm on Sunday, positively, if they have knowledge or information on the matter.
Ramachandra Dasmahapatra, a senior Daitapati, said it is almost impossible to take out neem wood from the temple store. In case somebody has taken, it should be investigated, he said.
According to sources in the temple, the surplus Daru was stored in a room to meet emergencies and contingencies. The Daitas, after placing the unused Daru in the store, lock it and hand over the keys to the temple security chief, known as the commander. There have been instances in the past when Biswakarmas were summoned to carry out urgent repairs to the body of deities secretly in the dead of the night, sources said.
The action was necessitated after an interview of Ramakrushna Dasmahapatra, secretary of Daitapati Nijoga, to a TV channel of West Bengal became viral. Ramakrishna reportedly told the TV channel he had brought the idols made of Daru and installed them at the Digha Jagannath Temple. This evoked strong reactions from devotees and Ramakrushna hurriedly organised a press meet on Friday and rebutted the allegations, saying he had used only neem tree logs to carve out four idols. He blamed the electronic media for spreading untruth.