Odisha to host grand event in Puri for inauguration of Jagannath temple corridor
The Odisha government has prepared a guest list that includes several VIPs, corporate czars and celebrities for the grand event to be held in Puri from January 15 to 17
The Odisha government would host a grand event during the inauguration of the beautification of the corridor around the iconic Jagannath Temple in Puri from January 15 to 17, just a few days before the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on January 22.
The Shree Mandira Parikrama Project (SMPP) abutting the Meghanada Pacheri (stone boundary around Jagannath Temple) being built at a cost of ₹943 crore has a 7-metre green buffer zone and a 10-metre pedestrian-only inner circumambulation that will be used for parikrama (clockwise circumambulation) of temple.
The project would ensure that the rectangular corridor around the 12th century Jagannath temple becomes a modern-day pilgrim centre complete with all modern amenities including a queue management facility for 6,000 devotees, baggage screening facility, cloakroom for keeping belongings of nearly 4,000 families, drinking water, toilet facilities, facilities for washing hands/feet, information-cum-donation kiosks, shelter pavilions for shade and rest, multi-level car parking, dedicated shuttle cum emergency lane for accommodating police, fire and emergency vehicles, an integrated command and control centre and souvenir shop among others.
“We are inviting 857 temples in Odisha while 180 major Indian temples including Vaishno Devi, Kamakhya Temple and Shirdi Sai temples will also be invited for the three-day inauguration event beginning from January 15. Four Holy Dhams as per Hindu religion and four other smaller Dhams will be invited. We are sending invitation to King of Nepal, who enjoys special rights in Jagannath Temple. Invitations are being sent to major Hindu temples in other countries too,” said Ranjan Kumar Das, chief administrator of the temple. Besides, hymns would be chanted amidst beating of drums round the clock.
The government has prepared a guest list that includes several VIPs, corporate czars and celebrities.
Das said a Lokarpan Yagna (ritual performed before sacred fire) will begin on January 15 and end on January 17. “Recitation of Vedas will be done at the four gates of the temple. Rigveda for eastern gate, Yajurveda for southern, Samaveda for western and Atharvaveda for northern have been finalised,” he said. All major buildings flanking the three-km-long Grand Road connecting the Temple and Mausima Temple are being painted uniformly. All temples and subsidiary shrines will be decorated in colourful lights. The town will be made dust free during the period with periodic vacuum cleaning without a sign of waste material.
All civil works of the project has been completed and the remaining landscaping work would be over by end of this year, officials said.
Land acquisition for the project began in November 2019 with over 600 people living around the temple giving up 15.64 acres critical for the development of the security zone. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone of the project in November 2021 for development of the area within 75-metre corridor of the boundary wall of the Jagannath temple to transform it to a pilgrim centre complete with all modern amenities.
The Jagannath temple project is being seen as the BJD’s attempts to consolidate the Hindu votes in its favour in 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls that would happen simultaneously much like what the BJP is trying to achieve through the consecreation ceremony at Ayodhya on January 22. At elast 7,000 people including 3,000 VVIPs including PM Narendra Modi, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, yoga seer Baba Ramdev and actors Arun Govil and Dipika Chikhalia who played Ram-Sita in the 80s popular TV serial Ramayan have been invited.
“Though there is not much challenge from opposition BJP, the party (BJD) faces anti-incumbency after ruling on a trot since 2000 when it was first elected to power along with its electoral partner BJP. Puri is the religious capital of Odisha and with 40,000 tourists visiting the temple town everyday, Naveen Patnaik can surely reap political capital,” said political analyst SP Dash.
Another political expert Rabi Das said by using the Jagannath temple, Patnaik has effectively nullified BJP’s plan of using any religious card. “The recently-launched Ama Odisha Nabeen Odisha scheme is mostly being used for renovation of temples across villages. Over the last four years, he is spending money for development of scores of temple across the state. Religion is a low hanging fruit and the BJD is using it effectively,” he said.