A Qualitative Study on Performance of Navakalevara Ceremony of the Chaturdha Murti of Lord Jagannatha Temple of Puri in Eastern India

Abstract

The Navakalevara ceremony of the Chaturdha Murti of Lord Jagannatha temple of Puri is the most important Hindu ritual of Odisha in Eastern India. It is the conspicuous custom, which is not found in some other Vaishnava temples of India. The Navakalevara ceremony is the periodical restoration of the Daru Devatas of the 'Chaturdha Murtis' of Lord Jagannatha temple of Puri. Based on custom, the Navakalevara (New Body) ceremony is noticed like the existence of person's occasion of "death and re-birth" of Lord Jagannatha. Usually, the Navakalevara ceremony of Lord Jagannatha of Puri is found in each 12 to 19 years as needs be the visionary estimation. The astrologers should find out a year with two full moons in the period of Asadha (Yoda Asadha or two fold Asadha), which is named by scholarly men as Purusottama Masa or Mala Masa. The Navakalevara ceremony of Lord Jagannatha of Puri is the symbolic of the traditional Vedic worship mixed with tribal worship. The determination of Darus for making of the new images of Jagannatha, Balabhadra, Subhadra and Sudarsana is an extremely severe cycle of the Navakalevara ceremony. The Vanayaga is the most fundamental ceremony of the Navakalevara custom, the periodical recharging of the Daru Devatas of Jagannatha 'Trinity' of Puri. The servitors of Lord Jagannatha called Daitas assume a noticeable part in looking for the Neem tree (Daru), moving the logs to the temple, cutting new images out of the logs with the assistance of craftsmen, putting the Brahma pradartha inside the image, internment of old divinities and tidying the new images up for the worship. The whole cycle is called Navakalevara, which covers a time of around 110 days for example from the day of ‘Vasantika Durgapuja Dasahara’ to the 'Nava Yauvana Darsana Day'. The Netrotsava or painting of the eyes is performed by the Brahmana priests (Puja Pandas) and afterward the new images of Lords are prepared for public visit. The aim of this article is to highlight the Hindu religious ideas on the performance of the Navakalevara ceremony of the Chaturdha Murti of Lord Jagannatha temple of Puri in Eastern India. Both the primary and secondary sources have been methodologically utilised in the writing of this article.