Devotees thronged Gadakuntunia village under Balakati block on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar since late Saturday night after the identification of the Nabakalebar Daru (log) of lord Sudarshan in the village was announced by the Puri Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA). SJTA chief administrator Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, who made the official announcement around midnight, arrived at the village on Sunday morning with other senior officials.
With this, the Banajaga team has identified all the four neem trees matching with the prescriptions of the Nabakalebar manual for construction of new bodies of the four deities, lord Jagannath, his elder brother lord Balabahdra and their sister Devi Subhadra and lord Sudarshan for the observance of the upcoming Nabakalebar ritual. Banajaga team leader Dalapati Haladhar Dasmohapatra and Twin city Police Commissioner RP Sharma were also present at the site of the Daru for lord Sudarshan.
Adequate security arrangements have been made at the place with deployment of four platoons of police force to maintain law and order. Sharma said the Commissionerate police would set up a temporary control room at the village to monitor the situation. Mohapatra told reporters, “We have brought with us iron barricades which are being erected around the neem tree on the bank of Prachi river to ensure that the tree is not damaged and the devotees would be able to have a darshan of the Daru from a safe distance.”
“The Daitapatis would arrive here on Monday afternoon after which there is a proposal of performing yajna and other rituals near the Daru the next day. The yajna will be performed for two days, after which the Daru would be cut. For transportation of the log to Puri, we have made arrangements for a wooden cart (Sagadi) to be made of banyan and tamarind trees. We will cut the logs to size at the Government saw mill at Khapuria in Cuttack. I hope the Daru would be taken to Puri by April 19-20,” he added. With tears rolling down his eyes, a local servitor of the village, who had been worshipping the tree since 1999, said since his stay in the village he had a feeling that the tree was meant for the lord.
“There was nothing in this area except this tree when I had first arrived at the village. Not a single leaf of this huge tree was damaged in the devastating super cyclone in 1999,” said the ailing old servitor, who could not see the Daru after the hearing the news. He further said, “As there were snakes living around this tree, people of the village used to avoid this route. I offered flowers and water to the tree every day after taking bath in the river.”