Dev Deepawali 2022 begins at Puri Srimandira today, Lord Jagannath to wear Shraddha Besha

Puri: The famous Dev Deepawali celebration commenced today at the famous Lord Jagannath temple in Puri of Odisha. The celebration will continue in the Srimandira for three days when Lord Jagannath will perform some rites like a human being. The Lord will donate Deepa (He will do Deepadana) and other rites in respect of his forefathers during these three days.

As per reports, Lord Jagannath donates Deepa in respect of Aditi and sage Kashyap on the Krushna Chaturdashi (14^th day of the dark fortnight in the month of Margasira), for Dasaratha and Koushalya on the Amabasya (No moon day) and in the name of Basudev, Devaki , Nanda, Yashoda, Indradyumna and Gundicha Devi on the Pratipada day during the days of Dev Deepawali.

The Dev Deepawali celebration goes for 3 days while on the last day the sesha deepawali rituals are performed in Srimandira. On these days since Lord Jagannath wears the Shraddha Besha and execute rituals for His forefathers, the same is called Dev Deepawali.

During these three days the pushpalaka sevakas adorn the Lord and His siblings with the Shraddha attires that is comprised off Nagapuri Saree and bed sheet. In this attire the Lords are draped with simple dresses. However, the boarders of their sarees are different.

Lord Jagannath wears cotton Nagpuri saree of 16 to 18 hands long. The width of the boarder of this saree is one feet. It contains embroidery of pots and it’s colour is red. The length of the dhoti of Sri Balabhadra is 14 hands long and width is 4 hands long, while the boarder is of one foot wide. The boarder is black. Similarly, the length of the saree of Mata Subhadra is 12 hands long while its width is 3 and half hand long. Her boarder is 1 feet long and is yellow.

Besides, the whole figure of each of the idols is covered with one bed sheet each. The head area is covered with a cotton cloth called Srikapada. It spreads on the Sribhuja, the hands of the Lord.

The clothes used during Shraddhabesha are called Dhadia Nagpuri cloth. During the Shraddhabesha the ornaments that the Lord and His siblings wear are Tadagi, Nalibhuja, Chandra, Surya, Kundala, Adkani, Harida Mali, Antakamara pati etc.