Sea of humanity on Puri’s Grand Road for Suna Vesha

Puri, July 10: The three-km long Grand road in this pilgrim city turned into a sea of humanity as lakhs of people thronged to witness the Suna Vesha of Lord Jagannath and his siblings, astride their respective chariots. The Grand Road, the venue of Rath yatra, has been transformed into two huge streams of devotees with one stream heading towards the chariots and the other returning after witnessing the Suna Vesha of the deities on the three chariots near the Simhadwar of the Jagananth temple. Five layers of security cover were thrown to ensure a hassle-free event..Sources said over ten lakh devotees thronged this pilgrim city to witness the most spectacular and attractive Suna Vesha of the three presiding deities of 12th century temple. Though Suna Vesha of the deities is observed inside the temple four times in a year, this is Sea of humanity on Puri’s Grand Road for Suna Vesha the only one observed outside the temple on the chariot. After a set of rituals such as offering of “Sakala Dhupa”(bhog) the process for Sunavesh began with the bringing of jewellery from the temple treasury and handing them over to the dressers concerned of the deities on the three chariots. The servitors began dressing the lords with huge ornaments at about 4 PM and the Suna Vesha(Golden attire) was completed by 5 PM. A huge quantity of gold ornaments and jewellery was brought from the temple treasury to the chariots amid tight security. Three separate sets of dressers simultaneously began fixing the gold attires and ornaments to the deities on the three chariots. The Suna Vesha darshan would be closed by 11 PM. The servitors under heavy security would take the ornaments back and deposit them in the temple treasury. Sources said the gold ornaments of various types and styles measuring about one hundred kilos were used to decorate the three deities in complete gold. The ornaments included giant limbs like feet, hands and insignias like mace, lotus, wheel and conch, Chandra and Surya (made of silver) . The giant size gold tiaras besides a number of large gem studded necklaces like “Haridamali, Odiani, Jhumpa “and other garlands used in the Sunavesh. It presented a spectacular look The deities too wear big “kundalas”(ear rings) in their earlobes besides chest guards all made of gold. The darshan of this special vesha would continue till late in the night. The sevayats and Shree Jagannath Temple Administration had made elaborate arrangements for the smooth conduct of all rituals.

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