Puri: Devotees expressed resentment after finding the gold crown of Goddess Maha Lakshmi missing during the ‘Sringar’ of the deity at Puri Srimandir on the auspicious Thursday of Margasira (November/December) month today.
Servitors at the 12th century shrine had reportedly not used the gold crown claiming that it was broken. This led to severe discontent among the devotees at the shrine today.
“Maha Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth and prosperity and such issue is certainly a cause of concern,” said a devotee.
A tug-of-war has also ensued among servitors and the Sri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) over the issue.
The servitors claimed that a portion of the crown was broken during the Nabakalebar festival and was reused after some repairs. However, as some defects were again detected, the crown was removed today.
“We had informed authorities about the incident in September and so far no step has been taken in this regard,” said servitor Laksmi Pratihari.
On the other hand, officials of SJTA claimed that the crown was taken out by the servitors without prior information.
“Only after the crown was removed by servitors the matter was brought to our notice. We are trying to ascertain whether it should be repaired or replaced with a new one,” said administrator (Niti), Pradip Kumar Das.
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