Bhubaneswar: A quintessential aspect of Lord Jagannath and His siblings is their humanisation. Starting from early morning till bedtime, the deities perform their daily chores like human beings.
Banakalagi or ‘facial ritual’ is a secret and special ritual which holds a lot of significance in the Srimandir tradition.
According to Ramachandra Das Mohapatra, a senior Daitapati servitor of Srimandir, “Banakalagi or to put it simply, Shrimukha Sringara, means applying fresh colours on the idols of the deities. It’s just like human beings take care of their faces and make an effort to look attractive. The ritual is performed by a group of Datta Mohapatra servitors. There are also separate Badagrahis for the three deities for the conduct of Banakalagi ritual.
Although the Srimandir Record of Rights (RoR) prescribes the conduct of Banakalagi ritual twice every month, it is being practiced once in a month.”
Banakalagi is ritually conducted after Madhyahna Dhupa ritual, said Das Mohapatra.
Major occasions when Banakalagi is conducted are the time before the Nabajouban Darshan (rejuvenated youthhood of the deities) and after the Rath Yatra day and preferably before Hera Panchami ceremony on the fifth day of the festival, said Das Mohapatra.
Banakalagi is conducted after the deities wear new clothes during Tadapalagi ritual. Since it is a secret ritual, darshan is strictly banned during its performance.
Regarding the ingredients of the colours, Das Mohapatra said black colour is collected by burning lamps. Conch shells are crushed to prepare white colour and yellow is prepared from hingula. A special kind of glue collected from wood apple tree is applied to the colours.
According to research scholar Bhaskar Mishra, “Banakalagi is performed after the end of Anasara ritual. No chemical colour is used in Banakalagi ritual. All are organic and natural colours. Musk (Kasturi nabhi) is also used in the process. The deities are painted with the colours prepared with due diligence.”
“Like we humans, Lord Jagannath also performs daily chores after waking up in the morning. So, Banakalagi is one of the rituals intended to beautify the deities,” said Mishra.
In this make-up session that beautifies the deities, Datta Mohapatra servitors of the temple are assigned the duty on a hereditary basis.
This is a secret service and no one except for a small group of servitors are allowed to be present. It takes about five to six hours and the Datta Mohapatra servitors use traditional colours.
Preparing the colours takes about 14 days for the servitors, said a servitor.