Puri queen offers special puja in Jagannath temple

Puri, Apr 8 (UNI) Puri queen Lilabati Patamahadei, accompanied by her husband Puri King Gajapati Dibya Singh Dev, today performed a special prayer before the presiding deities of the Jagannath temple inside the sanctum sanctorum.

The visit of the queen to the temple known as ''gahan Bije''had given the women the power for once the right of the servitor to worship the deities.

As per the tradition the holy service was commissioned after King Dibya Singh Dev, considered as the foremost servitor, decorated her with a colourful head gear in the sanctum sanctorum in front of the Lord Jagannath.

Soon after her induction into the holy service,the queen performed the most coveted ''chherapahanra'' (sweeping around the Ratnasimhasan)ceremony inside the sanctum sanctorum in presence of the King.

According to the religious code Loknath Mudirasta, a minor servitor boy chosen earlier by the temple, conducted the queen and the king to the temple and performed a complex set of religious service to the three presiding deities - Lord Jagannath, his elder Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra on behalf of the queen.

Then the royal couple along with their guests, who included royal families from various places, were taken to other temples in the 12th century temple complex.

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