Puri Temple Row Ends, Mahaprasad Selling Resumes

BY: SUN STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Pilgrims coming out of Jagannath Temple with Mahaprasad

Dec 29, JAGANNATHA PURI, ORISSA — Good news for the pilgrims who had been returning dejected without getting Mahaprasad at Jagannath Temple since Saturday. Normalcy has finally returned to the 12th century shrine as the temple cooks on Tuesday called off their strike, ending the three-day row over the tardy completion of shrine rituals and the subsequent ‘negative' repercussion on the sale of the holy food in the temple.

The Jagannath Temple administration virtually succumbed to pressure from the cooks, who had been demanding timely solemnization of the Deities' daily rituals, a violation of which often caused heavy financial loss to them due to non-sale of Mahaprasad in past.

At a meeting of the shrine priests' representatives here on Monday evening, the Jagannath Temple officials acceded to the demand of the agitating cooks and assured them they will streamline the daily rituals of the presiding sibling Deities at 12th century shrine.

"We called off the strike after getting assurance from the temple officials. Mahaprasad would be sold to common devotees at Puri temple from Tuesday," Padmanabha Mahasuar, the secretary of Suar Mahasuar Nijog, said.

"The priests of different categories of the temple pledged to solemnize the daily rituals in scheduled time. And once the rituals are performed in time, the cooks can sell Mahaprasad in right time as well," Puri district collector and temple's deputy chief administrator, Fakir Charan Satapathy said.

It may be noted that Mahaprasad was out of bounds to the pilgrims following a stir by cooks since Saturday. Even though the cooks had been preparing Bhog for the Deities, they had completely stopped preparing Mahaprasad for the pilgrims after facing huge losses due to non-sale of the cooked food on Friday.

Concerned about the ‘crisis' at Jagannath Temple, the state law department had also sought a report from the temple administration to thrash out the issue for the better convenience of pilgrims.

Even some citizens had also staged dharna in front of the temple on Monday demanding restoration of normalcy at the world famous shrine.