Lord Jagannath’s door-closing ritual (Pahuda Niti) could not be performed on Thursday night due to delay in other rituals, forcing Lord Jagannath to spend a sleepless night at Srimandir in Puri.
As per reports, Nandotsav was being held at Srimandir on Thursday which continued till Friday morning and Lord Jagannath’s rituals got delayed for some reasons.
Delay in Nandotsav rituals led to a delay in Lord Jagannath’s Pahuda ritual too.
Speaking to the reporters, the Chief Administrator of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), Ranjan Das said, “The delay in Pahuda ritual was due to unavoidable circumstances. Nandotsav is celebrated in the night because Lord Krishna was born in the dead of the night. Even the heavy rains in the last two days have affected the rituals in the temple.”
“We will make sure such delays do not happen in the next rituals,” Das assured.
It is pertinent to mention here that the impasse over the Banakalagi ritual in Puri Srimandir continued for a long time and the secret ritual of Lord Jagannath and his siblings was performed on August 9. This secret ritual should have been performed after Niladri Bije. But due to the dispute over the day of the ritual between the Dattamohapatra servitors and the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), it could not be held.