Puri: The Jagannath temple in Odisha’s Puri will remain closed to devotees for five hours Wednesday evening for ‘Banakalagi Niti’, a secret ritual in which the faces of the sibling deities are repainted with natural colours.
The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) said in a notification that public darshan will remain suspended from 6 pm to 11 pm after the completion of the second ‘Bhoga Mandap’ offering.
“On Wednesday, July 29, 2026, on the occasion of Ashadha Shukla (Vyasa Purnima) tithi, the Banakalagi Niti of the deities will be performed. Therefore, after the completion of the second Bhoga Mandapa offering, public darshan will remain temporarily suspended from 6 pm to 11 pm,” it said.
Banakalagi, also known as ‘Srimukha Sringara’, is traditionally performed a Wednesday or Thursday. During the ritual, all the doors of the 12th-century shrine remain closed as a select group of servitors, known as ‘Dattamahapatras’, ascend the ‘Ratna Singhasan’ (bejewelled throne) to repaint the faces of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra.
The elaborate ritual, which takes around four to five hours, uses only natural and organic pigments along with fragrant substances such as musk, camphor and saffron.
Powdered conch shells are used to prepare the white colour for Lord Balabhadra, ‘Haritala’ (a form of arsenic trisulphide) is used to produce the yellow colour for Goddess Subhadra, while ‘Hingula’ (red sulfide of mercury) is used to make the black pigment for Lord Jagannath. Saffron and camphor are added to the colours to enhance their lustre and fragrance, servitors said.
The ritual is considered essential as the paint on the deities’ faces is believed to fade or get affected by exposure to rain and humidity during the annual Rath Yatra festivities, which concluded July 24.
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