Taking strong exception at the decision of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) to cancel the Naba Jauban Darshan, servitors, devotees and scholars have expressed resentment over it and criticised the State Government and the SJTA calling this a great failure on their part to manage the upcoming big religious event Nabakalebar.
“If the Government and the SJTA are spending crores of rupees for a successful Nabakalebar, why are the devotees being debarred from entering the temple to get a glimpse of the new idols, a ritual called Naba Jauban Darshan” asks Ramachandra Dasmohapatra, a senior Daitapati servitor.
SJTA Chief Administrator Suresh Chandra Mohapatra had on Wednesday announced after a SJTA managing committee meeting that like the 1996 Nabakalebar, this year too, the Naba Jauban Darshan would remain cancelled.
As there had been a complete chaos during such ritual in 1977 leading to disruption of the famous Rath Yatra that year, the SJTA has decided to follow the break in tradition this year as happened in the last Nabakalebar in 1996, said Mohapatra, adding that devotees would, however, be allowed up to Anand Bazaar, the area inside the temple where Mahaprasad is made available.
This announcement has triggered strong resentment among devotees as well as servitors and research scholars of the Jagannath culture. Why is the Government spending so much for the festival if devotees are not allowed to get a glimpse of the idols in the temple on that appointed day, question many who are familiar with the ritualistic traditions associated with the much-revered deities of this 12th-century shrine.
Devotees cherish to have a Darshan of the newly-formed deities on the Ratna Simhasan during the Naba Jouban ritual during every Nabakalebar, said a servitor, expressing anguish the SJTA’s decision to cancel it. This should be viewed as a failure of the SJTA and the Government whose responsibility is to solemnise the grand festival incident-free, he said.