Now Lord Jagannath’s silk attire to be made without killing worms

In a major reform in Puri Srimandir, silkworms will no longer be killed to produce silk attire (Gitagobinda Khandua Pata) for the Holy Trinity.

The state Handlooms, Textiles and Handicrafts department has decided to procure the attire for the Srimandir deities without killing the silkworms.

As per reports, the directorate of textiles has proposed a unique process in which silkworms will not be killed to make silk fabric. And the demo of the process was shown at the Srimandir Management Committee meeting held on Monday.

After the meeting, Odisha Chief Secretary and working chairperson of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), Pradeep Kumar Jena, said, “We have discovered a way to create silk clothes without killing the worms. In other words, we are now able to produce non-violence silk attire. We have discussed all the modalities on how to make it widely available so that the deities in the Srimandir will be able to wear them as and when necessary.”

The ‘Khandua Pata’ deities are currently wearing are made with regular silk fabric which involves killing the silkworm to extract the thread. The life cycle of silkworm begins when the female silk moth lays eggs. As soon as the eggs are hatched, the larvae or the caterpillar comes into the picture. The silkworms feed on the mulberry leaves which then become pupa. In the pupa stage, a weave is netted around by the silkworm to hold itself. Many caterpillars form a protective layer around the pupa and this covering is termed as cocoon. And the silk yarn is obtained from the silk moth’s cocoon after killing it.

However, the new way of producing silk without killing the moth has been adopted at Rautapada in Khordha on an experimental basis.

Speaking on silk production, Assistant Director of Sericulture, Padmacharan Padhi said, “ Generally, there are four types of silkworms; Mulberry, Eri, Tassar and Muga. Out of these four, the Eri worm is not killed to extract the yarn. But the yarn from Eri is too thick and is not suitable to weave silk attire for the deities. However, a factory in Raipur has managed to create thin fabrics from Eri silkworms. We will be using the same technique to produce ‘Khandua Patta’ for the Holy Trinity.”

The new ‘Khandua Pata’ shown during the demonstration pleased all the members of the committee including the servitors after it was revealed that the silk was made without killing the worm.

“When a devotee donates a khandua pata to the deity, he does not know how many silkworms are killed to produce the same. I am very pleased to hear today that silk can be made even without killing the worms. The price may be a bit higher but it will be of very high quality, suitable for Lord Jagannath to wear it,” said senior servitor and Managing Committee member, Durga Dasmohapatra.

It is worthwhile to mention here that a set of Khandua Pata is 88 metres long, to produce which, at least four to six lakh Tasser silkworms are killed.