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Priests. A priest is supposed to act as an intermediary between God and the laymen. A siska guru and performer of rituals that hold religious society together. The more I hear about the Puri priests the more they sound like common thugs.

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Priests. A priest is supposed to act as an intermediary between God and the laymen. A siska guru and performer of rituals that hold religious society together. The more I hear about the Puri priests the more they sound like common thugs.

 

Looks like the Puri police agrees with you on this point.

 

Police Arrested the Panda in Jagannath Temple Assault Case

Apr 23, JAGANNATHA PURI, ORISSA — Police on Tuesday arrested the panda who had manhandled a pilgrim from the West Bengal state inside the world famous Jagannath Temple on April 19th. The tormenter has been identified as Radhanath Das (25), a dhulia priest, police said.

Earlier on April 19th, the victim Santosh Das had lodged an FIR (first information report) with the Puri Town police alleging that a man clad in priestly attire attacked him and fractured his nose when he opposed the man’s rough dealing with his family members. Das was given five stitches on his bleeding nose. Since then the accused went missing, leaving the cops on their toes.

Meanwhile, buckling under criticism thanks to the media reports, the Jagannath Temple administration on Monday asked the Superintendent of Police (Puri) to apprehend the tormenter, at the earliest.

The temple’s Deputy Chief Administrator, Rashmi Ranjan Patnaik, on Monday evening convened an urgent meeting and asked the Puri SP to resolve the matter as soon as possible.

Even though the police registered a case, it had failed to identify the culprit. “It is matter of utter shame for the temple administration. We condemn such a horrific incident inside the temple. The SP has been requested to arrest the culprit soon,” Patnaik said.

The IAS officer Patnaik, who is also the Puri District Collector, admitted that the Saturday incident has tarnished the reputation of the hallowed place. “We can think of an image makeover by arresting the culprit immediately,” Patnaik said.

Earlier on Monday, the police had detained Das on the basis of suspicion and interrogation was on. While the victim Santosh Das lodged a complaint alleging a priest had assaulted him (because he was in priestly attire), police said the suspect was not a priest. “The suspect is a ‘dhulia panda’ (a sort of guide in the temple),” said Alekh Chandra Pahi, the inspector-in-charge of the Puri Town police station.

"A police constable, who was present on that day on the crime spot identified the suspect as the real culprit. We verified the things from other perspectives. We also sent the photograph of the suspect to the victim, who immediately identified Das. We took Das into our custody and sent him to jail," Pahi said.

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Looks like the newspapers will always have enough stuff to report about incidents occuring at Puri. Finally they will have to pass a new law, who's actually a Hindu?

 

 

Mulsim Pilgrim entered Puri Jagannath Temple, Landed in Trouble

Apr 29, JAGANNATHA PURI, ORISSA — A Tamil pilgrim's journey to the hallowed city of Puri got a bad taste on Tuesday, as the Muslim devotee, identified as K. Jabeer (51) from Chennai faced an hour-long police inquiry for flouting the Jagannath Temple norm by entering into the shrine, which is off limits for non-Hindus. Later Jabeer was allowed to go away from the police station after the cops found him ignorant on the temple’s stricture on religion.

Jabeer, who works as a laundry operator at Employers’ State Insurance Corporation Hospital in K. K Nagar area in Chennai, entered into the shrine precinct along with three of his friends (all Hindus), police said. Some priests raised suspicion on the religion of Jabeer from his get-up and beard-style, typical of a Muslim. When the priests asked his religion, Jabeer admitted to being a Muslim.

“I had no idea about the Jagannath Temple rule, which is out of bounds for the non-Hindus. I have come for the first time to Puri on a pilgrimage accompanied by 480 devotees (all Hindus) from Tamil Nadu,” said Jabeer. Temple inspector Gyan Ranjan Mahapatra also maintained that the Muslim pilgrim was unaware of the temple norm.

Meanwhile, a cleansing ritual, bada mahasnan (giving a special bath to Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra) was performed by the temple priests following Jabeer’s entry into the temple. The daily rituals at the temple were thrown out of order, a temple official told. “However, the rituals went on later, though pretty late. There was no tension inside the temple,” said Laxmidhar Pujapanda, the public relation officer of the Jagannath temple administration.

Jabeer, on the other hand, blamed the Jagannath Temple administration for the humiliation he faced on his maiden trip to the temple town and urged the shrine authorities to install a blow-up display board highlighting the do’s and don’ts at the Jagannath Temple, frequented by nearly 30,000 pilgrims, everyday. “It is very hard to notice the temple rules which are written on a small board, placed in a corner. Even though the Jagannath Temple is of world repute, not all the people would be knowing the strictures here,” Jabeer said.

Meanwhile, this incident came close on the heels another kind of violation that had taken place in the Jagannath Temple last week, when N. Basu, a pilgrim from Hyderabad, was fined for sneaking into the temple with his video cameras. Cameras are not allowed inside the Jagannath Temple at Puri. Basu and his friends, however, did not enter the temple through the main entrance point. They managed to get themselves into the shrine by climbing a ladder placed on the temple wall adjacent to the shrine kitchen.

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Sri Jagannath temple faces water scarcity

 

<table class="content" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr> <td height="10" valign="top" width="53%">By Panchanan Sahu

Kalingatimes.com

Puri, June 1: Humans being affected by the piercing heat and humid conditions prevailing in Orissa this summer is not new. Women and children are queuing up for hours together for bucketful water at several places in view of severe water scarcity prevailing in many pockets of the state is a common scene.

But what has baffled scores of devotees visiting the famous Sri Jagannath temple here is that the presiding deities of the 12th century shrine have not even been spared by the vagaries of nature.

The kitchen on the premises of Sri Jagannath temple, considered to be the largest temple kitchen in the world, is experiencing the water scarcity.

Water level in the two wells – Ganga and Jamuna – which exclusively provide water for preparation of the `Mahaprasad' has started receding giving the temple administration a few jitters.

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“Never before in it's over 800 year's history did the temple face such a crisis,” Shyamsundar Mohapatra, a priest says.

The problem had surfaced in the shrine since 2005. During May-June water-level in the two wells goes down to such a level that most of the time only mud comes out. So, they store the water in huge drums to avoid possible water shortage for the purpose, a Pania Sevak says.

The worried priests had met the chief temple administrator and pleaded with him to take immediate steps to avert water scarcity in the temple, especially during the summer.

The temple administrator had assured them to take remedial measures to resolve the crisis and also proposed that for the time being water could be stored in huge tanks to use it for cooking the `Mahaprasad'.

However, the priests said that it was against the prevailing rituals of the temple and after coming to know about it devotees might protest this action and decline to eat the `Mahaprasad' prepared from stored water.

"As per the temple tradition, the `Mahaprasad' is prepared only with water from the two wells. So using stored water to prepare `Mahaprasad' will be a violation of the age old tradition,” says Balabhadra Mahapatra, a servitor.

According to chief cook Radhamadhab Mahapatra, the temple kitchen feeds nearly 30,000 devotees everyday. During festive occasions, about 80,000 people take the `Mahaprasad' daily, with the kitchen having the capacity to cook for at least three lakh devotees.

Around 500 cooks and 300 helping hands prepare 56 different types of `Mahaprasad'. They include seven different types of rice, four types of pulses, nine types of vegetable curries and some sweet dishes. These offerings are offered to the presiding deities – Lord Jagannath, his elder brother Balabhadra and their sister Subhadra – six times a day.

These are the most important rituals in the temple. The devotees are allowed to partake the `Mahaprasad' only after they are offered to the deities.

Although the temple has six wells on its premises, water from Ganga and Jamuna (each over 80 ft deep) wells is used for cooking. Everyday over one lakh litres of water is fetched from the two wells for the purpose.

The other four wells are located one each near Bimala temple, Laxmi temple, Anand Bazar and Koili Baikuntha.

As the water crisis threatened to affect the rituals in the temple, the shrine administration had sent a SOS to the Orissa government seeking a permanent solution to the problem.

The government then set up an expert committee comprising experts from the Ground Water Survey and Investigation, Central Ground Water Board and local Public Health Department to conduct a survey for a long term solution .The team submitted its report in 2006.

The survey revealed that huge withdrawal of water everyday from the two wells had led to the problem and suggested that it be restricted to 1,250 litres per hour during summer.

It also suggested that in case of more water requirements, a five-hour hiatus be allowed so that the water-level in the two wells could increase to the desired level.

The team observed that the Jagannath temple is situated at an area higher than ground water level and water level in the temple wells drastically fall due to existence of many open wells and bore wells close to the `Meghanada Pacheri' , the boundary walls of the shrine.

These wells are mostly used by lodges, hotels, Ashrams and mutts and are fitted with pumps and motors resulting in heavy withdrawal of ground water.

The experts recommended that restriction be imposed for ground water withdrawal through pumps from any type of well within a 500-metre radius from the temple's boundary wall during summer.

It also recommended that the wells be dug one more metre deep to prevent them from drying up during summer.

The team also found out that rampant encroachment near Baliapanda and Balukhand areas within the Puri municipality limits, which are the main and reliable sources of drinking water having 705 acres area, has led to water scarcity in the temple.

"Encroachments in sweet-water zone have prevented rainwater from recharging ground water sources. Despite many directions from the state government, the Puri district administration is doing precious little to make the zone encroachment free,” says environmentalist Jagannath Bastia.

“Except minor renovation of the wells by removing a few bucketful of mud, no step has been taken to implement the recommendations of the committee,” Bastia alleged.

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