Lord Jagannth appears for darshan after a fortnight

Puri, Jun 25 (UNI) After remaining sick for a fortnight Lord Jagannath,his elder brother Lord Balavadra and their sister Devi Subhadra appeared today for Navayouvan Darshan to the devotees.

The holy triads had fallen sick after taking 108 pitchers of aromatic bath on the Snan Poornima a couple of weeks ago. Their traditional doctor (Vaidya) treated them for recovery from the fever. During these days the deities were put on restricted diet of fruits only.

Mangal aarti was conducted at 0500 hours today followed by a set of other rituals and the the devotees were allowed on ticket darshan for one hour while the free darshan called ''Shahan Mela'' continued till 1000 hours.

''Sakal Dhupa'', a special bhog was offered to the deities at about 1500 hours. A large number of devotees, including Orissa Governor Rameswar Thakur and the judges of high court, had offered prayers to the lord.

Prior to that last night the servitors dressed the deities and decorated their face called ''Banak Laagi'' before they appeared for public darshan.

The temple administration said all the rituals were performed in time keeping the schedule for beginning of the Rath yatra tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, all the three chariots today moved from the construction site to parked in front of the temple main gate after the engineer of the works department issued road worthy certificate.

The process was expected to be completed by mid night.

UNI XC DP SJC/src2030