Srimandir cooking in ‘troubled waters’

Puri, July 31: Water scarcity gripped the famous Sri Jagannath temple here as water in the two wells Ganga and Jamuna in the temple kitchen were unable to provide adequate water for cooking of bhog.
Temple sources said the water depth in the two wells has been decreased to a great extent.
Since a large number of devotees eagerly waited for tasting ‘Nilachala Abhada’ Friday, the temple cooks have prepared a huge quantity of bhog in the temple kitchen.But shortage of water in the kitchen wells had put them in a difficult situation. The cooks met the chief administrator of the temple, Suresh Chandra Mahapatra, and conveyed the problem.
A temporary arrangement was made after consultation with the sevayats. As per the arrangement, the cooks were allowed to use other two wells located in the temple complex.
The public health department engineers who were working to provide potable water for the temple kitchen were yet to accomplish the job.
Earlier July 22 last during the Rath Yatra when the deities were away in the Gundicha temple, chief engineer public health Khitish Sahu along with PHD engineers had inspected the kitchen wells to ascertain the cause of the water table going down.
The engineers had informed the temple administration that they would try to install two dip bore tube wells near the wells to provide water or else necessary water would be supplied from the Talabania underground sweet water zone through a dedicated pipe line. This would be worked out before the deities enter the main temple, they had assured.
The presiding deities of the Sri Jagannath temple after returning from their nine-day sojourn to Gundicha temple were installed on the Ratnasimhasan of the main temple Thursday night. The temple priests resumed the normal daily chores and ‘nitees’ of the deities.
The first cooked bhog Friday is to be offered to the deities popularly called ‘Nilachal Abhada.’
During the Rath Yatra when deities were on the chariots they were offered fruits and other dry bhog (sukhila mahaparasad). The mahaprasad was available for the devotees Friday by late in the evening as the performance of a complex set of ‘nitees’ and rituals took hours, Jagannath temple spokesperson Laxmidhar Pujapanda said. UNI

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