June 09, 2017: On the holy festival of Snana Yatra, large crowds of devotees come to the Jagannath Temple in Odisha to commemorate the appearance of Lord Jagannath. It takes place in the Hindu month of Jyestha on a Purnima (full moon) day. This year, it was on June 9.
Lord Jagannath is the deity worshiped by Buddhists and Hindus. Lord Jagannath means the 'Lord of the Universe'. Most worshippers and be found in Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Gujarat, Assam, and Manipur.
A day before the Snana Yatra, the images of Jagannath, Sudarshana, Balabhadra, and Subhadra are taken to the procession which is called the snana-vedi (bathing pandal). The procession is known as 'Pahandi' in the local language.
Shri Jagannath Temple, Puri. Wikimedia
The proceedings are known to be sacred. The Devotees strongly believe that getting a glimpse of this bathing ceremony of the Lord will wash away their sins. Hence, the ceremony attracts people from different places in large numbers. The bathing platform is 76 feet high which makes it visible to people outside the temple as well.
The snana-vedi is beautifully decorated with traditional paintings of trees and gardens. The deities are decorated with flowers. The bathing water is ritually purified water drawn from the northern well of the temple only once on this day of the year.
After the bathing ritual, the ceremony is concluded by dressing the Lord Jagannath in an elephant headgear symbolic of Lord Ganesha.
– by Saksham Narula of NewsGram. Twitter: @Saksham2394