President Pranab Mukherjee offered prayers to the deities at the Shree Jagannath Temple on Saturday morning.
Mukherjee arrived at the temple’s lion’s Gate at around 7 am and was welcomed by Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingh Dev, Tourism and Culture Minister Maheswar Mohanty and Chief Temple Administrator Arabinda Padhee. The temple remained off limits to general devotees during the President’s darshan of the Trinity while only a few priests were allowed into the sanctum sanctorum to conduct pujas.
Padhee said the President inquired about the preparations for the festival of Nabakalebar (formation of new idols of the deities, including lord Jagannath) in 2015. Mukherjee also took keen interest in the temple renovation work being carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India. The temple administration said it is hopeful that the renovation programme would be completed before the Nabakalebar festival.
Thousands gathered behind the barricades near the temple gate and along the route from the Raj Bhavan to the temple to have a glimpse of the President, who was clad in white dhoti and kurta. After his prayers at the temple’s sanctum sanctorum, Mukherjee went to the Mukti Mandap (seat of pundits and scholars) in the temple premises and sought its blessings. Then, he went to the shrines of Goddesses Vimala and Mahalakshmi located in the main temple complex and held pujas there.
Mukherjee was accompanied by his family priests Madhusudan Pujapanda and Damodar Gochhikar. He signed in the pilgrim register acknowledging their religious services during his visit to the temple. While coming out of the temple, a beautiful Patachitra artwork depicting the famous Purusottam Kanchi Abhiyan was presented to the President by the Temple Chief Administrator. After spending about half an hour, Mukherjee returned to the Raj Bhavan and took his breakfast of fresh fruits before leaving for Bhubaneswar by helicopter.