Thousands of devotees thronged the Sarala Pitha at Jhankada in Jagatsinghpur district on Friday morning soon after Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) chief administrator Suresh Chandra Mohapatra announced this basing on the Banajaga team’s suggestions lord Balabhadra’s Daru was identified at Jhankada. Mohapatra accompanied by IG of Police Asit Panigrahi, District Collector SK Mallick, SP Sudha Singh, other senior officials and cops, arrived at Jhankada on Friday morning and made the official announcement.
Adequate security arrangements were made at the Daru site with deployment of five platoons of police force to maintain law and order. “We have made barricades which are being erected around the neem tree in front of the Sarala temple 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. Traffic is controlled along all the roads connecting to the Sarala temple and Jhankada,” informed SP Singh.
Soon after Chakraraj Sudarshan Daru is cut and taken to the Shree Mandir, the Daitapatis, Brahamans and other servitors would arrive here on Saturday for performance of yajna and other rituals near the Daru. “I hope the yajna ritual would start on Monday which will continue for two days after which the Daru would be cut,” informed the SJTA chief.
Meanwhile, about 30 to 40 shops and makeshift houses adjoining the Sarala temple have been demolished and relocated on Friday evening as these houses are obstructing traffic movement and were close to the Daru. After eviction of these houses, Yajan Mandap, Sabara Palli and rest houses for the Daitapatis and other Banajaga teams would be constructed there, informed district Collector Mallick.
According to the Collector, lakhs of people from across Jagatsinghpur district, besides many from adjoining Cuttack, Jajpur and Kendrapada, are expected to arrive at the site when the yajna will start. The Banajaga teams had visited Jhankada four times and inspected the neem tree which had all the signs and requirements for declaring the lord Balabhadra’s Daru.
Strangely, after the Banajaga team visited the tree on Sunday and instructed clearing the neem tree basement, at least 20 snakes had been unearthed, said a local. Sarala temple servitor Ramakanta Raula informed not a single branch of the tree had been damaged during the super cyclone in 1999 and Phailin in 2014, adding the tree had been shortlisted for Nabakalebar in 1996 but was rejected later.
In another development, after the completion of the mahayajna, the felling of the Sudarhsan Daru began on Friday at Gadakuntunia village. The cutting of the holy neem tree began at about 4 pm after Bidyapati, Biswabasu and Biswakarma touched the tree with gold, silver and iron axes, respectively, after the completion of the mahayajna.
The real cutting started when Biswakarma servitors used heavy iron axes for cutting the root of the tree. Before that, Daitapatis performed Sodh (purification) of the tree. Then, a white cloth was wrapped around the tree trunk. As soon as Swatriya Brahmins completed their 1008 Aahutis at the yajna, mandap and 101 at the root of the tree, the cutting process began.
The Biswakrmas would shape the tree trunk into a specified size and then the Daru would be mounted on the freshly-built four-wheel wooden cart (Sagadi) and pulled to Koili Baikuntha in the Shree Jagannath Temple.