|
|||||
Related
to the car-festival, an important festival known as 'Nava Kalebara' is held
once in every twelve to nineteen years according to the calculation of the
year and date. On this occasion the wooden images of the deities are replaced
by new ones.
|
Time For The Festivity
The
principle adopted to fix the year of renewal is to find a year, which has two
full moons in the month of 'Asadha'. In every three years a lunar month is
excluded from the calculation to keep a balance between the lunar and the solar
years. This particular month, which is excluded from calculation is known as
"Adhimasa" or "Mala Masa" and is considered most
inauspicious for any religious ceremony.
The Rituals
For
making the new images a number of rituals connected with it are observed. When
the date is fixed for the festival the "Gajapati Maharajah" of
Puri issues a proclamation to the 'Vidyapati', 'Daitas' and
Brahmins well versed in the Vedas to go in search of the trees that would
provide logs for making the images.
Generally,
this proclamation is issued on the 10th day of the full moon of 'Chaitra'.
After the mid-day rituals of the Lord Jagannatha, the 'Mahapatras' receive
"Agnya Mala", the garland as a token of permission from the Lord to
go in search. Then the Mahapatras carry this garland along with four
'Daitapatis' to the "Anabasara Pindi" (a platform inside the temple)
where they are given new garments to wear. From there they go to the Jagannatha
'Math', the place of starting.
Accompanied
by the Daitapatis, 'Deulakarana', 'Tudhan', 'Lenka' and four carpenters they go
to the temple of 'Mangala' at Kakatpur, which is about 40-km in the north.
There they sleep in the temple to obtain permission of the Goddess in dream
before proceeding in four batches to four directions in search of the trees.
No comments:
Post a Comment