Know the nonagenarian mother who weaves attires for lord Jagannath, bedecks Trinity with her handmade fabrics

Bhubaneswar, May 21: A mother dresses up her children with attractive apparels, makes them up, in order to look cute and attractive. However, an elderly mother who is neither the Maa Jasoda nor Maa Devaki of the mythological era but weaves apparels for Lord Jagannath, the live epitome of Lord Krishna, and dresses him aesthetically along with his siblings with her hand-woven dresses since decades. The divinely blessed woman is Aseli Das, a 93-year old mother who is a native of Routpada village under Khordha district, in the outskirt of Bhubaneswar city. Aseli who is a traditional weaver from the era of monarchy has been performing the job of weaving the dresses for lord Jagannath, God Balabhadra and Goddesh Subhadra. Apart from it, she prepares apparels for the side gods and goddesses encircled around the Sri Jagannath temple on the eve of different rituals. {"id":185868,"width":836,"height":661,"sizeSlug":"full","linkDestination":"none"} Though Aseli’s ancestral family originates from West Bengal decades ago, Aseli from her early marriage at the Routpada village in Khordha for more than 77 years has been preparing the apparels (Anga Bastra) of the Trinity so far, with all of her devotions. Though all of her family members including two sons and daughter-in-laws weave commercial clothes for their livelihood, Aseli devotes all of her time and sincere effort with designing clothes for Jagannath with heartfelt devotion and strong will. Fearing something unholy and negligence in preparing the apparels for the Almighty, she prepares cotton, winds thread, lay planks of yarns, makes country dyes and glues, sets looms and weave out looms with own interlacing designs herself single handed to prepare at least 51 types of apparels(Khandua Patas) of different colours which the gods clad almost every day and during the special rituals. {"id":185869,"width":845,"height":666,"sizeSlug":"full","linkDestination":"none"} Sharing her views with adopting the noble job in the service of the Lord Jagannath, Aseli said,”It is a blessing of the Lord Jagannath to me so that being a common woman, I am making clothes for him. I feel supreme peace and accomplishment to see the Lord and the siblings with my hand-oven patas. Especially, my joys know no bounds when I see Jagannath on his Car during the Rath Yatra, wearing my best-wove apparels.” Worth mentioning, the Trinity in Puri Sri Jagannath temple, changes his clad thrice in a day. The days and movements of zodiacs determine the dresses’ colours of the God and the Goddess in the Srimandir. Apart from it they are bedecked with special pata traditionally termed as the Khandua pata in special occasions including Nagarjuna Besa, Nabakalebara,Rajarajeswar Besha,Hati Besa and during the Rath Yatra and Bahuda. All the essential dresses for the temple are being designed with the trembling hands of Aseli since 1995. Relying on the devotion, dedication and inclination of the elderly mother, the Sri Jagannath Temple Administration has authorized her to design clothes for the temple since 27 years. Before it, Aseli was engaged in the pious job according to the order from the Puri Royal family. Aseli, for her supreme duty has been recognized by various spiritual and cultural institutions. She has also been felicitated for her outstanding output in crafting artistic Khandua Patas from cotton for Lord Jagannath and his siblings with a spiritual touch, by Odisha Weaver’s Co-operative Society, Utkal University and other organisations of the Odisha governments.