Prathamastami Bhara goes to Puri Srimandira from Niali’s Madhabanand temple on Margasira Krushna Saptami, watch
Prathamastami is observed on Astami that is falling tomorrow this year for which the bhara (load of gifts including rice, cereals, fruits, clothes and many other items) is being taken to Puri from Niali today on Saptami, the 7th day of the dark fortnight of the Margasira month
Gop: The atmosphere at the Madhavananda temple in Niali is vibrant today with the sound of conch shells, drums and gongs because the Prathamastami Bhara is being taken from here to Puri Srimandira. Since early this morning, more than 2,000 devotees from more than 25 villages have gathered near the temple to participate in this holy event.
The Prathamastami Bhara is being taken to Puri in a procession. Some devotees are seen performing dances in different costumes in this procession. The atmosphere was shaken by the sound of cymbals, mridangams and holy hymns chanting.
Tomorrow the deities Lord Jagannath and Balabhadra will become ‘Podhuan’ in the Puri Srimandira. And thus, as per the tradition, the Prathamastami Bhara is going from the Madhavananda temple in Niali, which is regarded as the place of the Lord’s maternal uncle. Legend and Purana describe that Maa Mangala’s brother Madhav is the maternal uncle of Mahaprabhu.
Every year on the eighth day of the month of Margashirsha, in Krishna Paksha, the firstborn son of every Odia family is dressed in new clothes and is given a ‘padhuan’. This is observed as ‘Prathamastami’.
The Mahaprabhu’s magnificent ‘padhuan’, the procession is welcomed with the sound of Ghanta and Kitana on the way from the Madhav temple to Puri, at Charichhak, Ganeshwarpur of Gop and Balighai.
For the ‘padhuan’, new clothes are sent for Mahaprabhu Bada Thakur and siblings along with coconut, jaggery, newly harvested rice, black gram, turmeric leaves, coconut and other fruits.
At the Madhavananda temple, the main servitor Trilochan Pushpalaka sanctifies all the items with singing hymns, and then the things are kept on new ‘Shika Bahungi’ and taken to Puri in a procession.
