Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb on Wednesday visited the Jagannath temple and took stock of the repair of the Jagamohan, facing the sanctum sanctorum.
The Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee chairman entered the 12th century shrine through the south gate and inspected the repair work being undertaken by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI). He held discussions with the ASI officials and workers and appealed to them to ensure speedy conservation of the Jagamohan which is now in a bad shape.
On Wednesday too, the sibling deities, Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra, were off -limits to common devotees for three and a half hours for herbal facial (Banakalagi ritual).
The Banakalagi ritual was conducted last time on February 3 ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the 12th century shrine on February 7.
Though the deities are supposed to get the colourful coat of herbal paste used from products like hartala, hengula, karpura, kasturi and kaintha gum once in every week, the same was not conducted as per practice due to several reasons.
Dattamohapatra servitors carried out the ritual.