Puri, April 13: Amid frequent instances of intruding of non-Hindus to the Shree Jagannath temple at Puri in recent days, the servitors have decided to guard the shrine’s door.
Two Pratihari servitors of the temple will stand guard at the ‘Singhadwara’ or Lions Gate to prevent entry of non-Hindus into the temple from ‘Pana Sankranti’, April 14, said secretary of Pratihari Nijog, Ram Narayan Gochikar.
In the first phase, they will guard the main gate twice a day - once during ‘Dwara Phita’ ritual in the morning and then again during ‘Sandhya Arati’ in the evening.
As per the record of rights of Shree Jagannath temple, Pratihari servitors had been performing Singhadwara Pratihari Seva under which they were responsible for managing the crowd in the temple, keeping a watch on movement of devotees and maintaining guard during movement of ‘bhoga’ from the temple kitchen to the sanctum sanctorum, among other things. The seva was discontinued over a decade back owing to various reasons and currently, police maintain a vigil on the crowd entering the shrine, said senior servitor and Srimandir Culture researcher Purnachandra Gochikar.
