Puri: Devotees witness reappearance of Lord Jagannath ahead of Rath Yatra

A day before the Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath thousands of devotees on Thursday thronged Odishas Puri to witness the reappearance of sibling deities at the 12thcentury shrine hereThey reached the Singha Dwar Lions Gate of the temple much before the sun rose to have a Nabajouban darshan youthful appearance of Lord Balabhadra Devi Subhadra and Lord Jagannath on the Ratna Bedi sacred platform in sanctum sanctorumThe deities appear before the devotees after a fortnightThe public darshan of the sibling deities was stopped after bathing rituals on June 11It is believed that the deities do not appear before devotees as they fall ill after the bathing rituals They remain in quarantine at Anasar Ghar isolation room for a fortnight before Rath Yatra said Bhaskar Mishra a researcher in the Jagannath cultureAccording to a Shree Jagannath Temple Administration SJTA official the temple opened for devotees for Nabajouban Darsan from 8 am to 1030 amOn the Nabajouban Besha the sibling deities wear a special youthful dress and the ritual is held to celebrate the rejuvenation of Lord Jagannath The day is also referred to as lsquoNetra Ustavrsquo eyeopening festival when the eyes of the idols are paintedDesignated servitors perform this ritual which is a secret affair in the temple Mishra saidldquoThe devotees were first allowed to go inside the temple for a parmanik paid darshan which was held between 8 am and 9 am and the general public darshan was conducted between 9 am to 1030 am the SJTA official said adding that later the doors were closed for the daySJTA chief administration Arabinda Padhee said The Nabajouban Darsan has been completed smoothly with the support of all the servitors We hope that the Rath Yatra will go smoothlyDuring the day the three chariots would be parked in front of the shrines main gateThey will be pulled from Rath Khada chariot yards in the afternoon The rituals of parking the chariots will be performed the SJTA official saidThe construction of three wooden chariots Taladwaja Lord Balabhadras chariot Debadalan of Devi Subhadra and Nandighosh of Lord Jagannath has been completedOn the occasion of the Rath Yatra a massive deployment of 10000 security personnel comprising those in the Odisha Police and jawans of the Central Armed Police Forces CAPF has been madeFor the first time commandos of the National Security Guards NSG have also been deployed for the festivalldquoNSG personnel will keep a watch on the festival from rooftops while around 275 AIenabled cameras are placed at strategic positions in Puri town for the mega event Odisha DGP Y B Khurania said adding that special plans are chalked out for crowd management traffic control health services and other amenitiesAdequate security arrangements have also been made in and around the Sri Gundicha temple the place where the chariots with deities on board will be taken and parked for a week the DGP saidPersonnel of Odisha marine police Coast Guard and Indian Navy have also been deployed to ensure coastal securityThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever