Jagannath Temple honours devotees for generous help

Puri, Jun 22 (UNI) The Jagannath temple administration today honoured a large number of devotees for their generous help enabling the temple to construct the chariots for the annual Car festival over the years.

As many as 42 devotees, all residents of the Nayagarh district were presented each with a certificate, shawl, a packet containing the pieces of sacred ratha wood, Nirmalya (dry mahaprasad) and a portion of the temple flag as a token of acknowledgement for their religious bond towards the lord Jagannath in difficult times.

Temple sources said during 2001 when the state Forest department expressed its inability to provide the ''matured Phasi timbers'' for construction of three chariots, the devotees came forward to donate phasi tree for the construction of the chariots.

They responded to the frantic appeal of the temple administration and donated the matured phasi tree for their yard. The forest officials maintained that Phasi tree were also seen in large numbers in the hilly tracts along the Mahanadi river particularly in Nayagarh district.

It normally takes about fifteen to twenty years for phasi tree to mature for use in the construction. The tree's trunk having strong fibers, is used as lengthy axles and giant wheels of the three chariots.

During the regime of kings (Gadjat rajas) princely states of Nayagarh, Duspalla, Ranpur and Khadapara were providing the required timber logs while Nayagarh was providing Phasi logs which were transported through river tracks to Puri.

As per the construction manual total 862 numbers of various types of timber logs, including Dhaura, Asana and Phasi were used for construction of the chariots. Since abolition of princely states and government take over of the temple management the forest corporation had been supplying the necessary timber logs.

The traditional temple carpenters work over it to carve out required size wood from the logs. The Forest department reported that it was becoming increasingly difficult to provide matured Phasi tree logs every year and in coming years it would be impossible for them to supply.

UNI