Puri: Among all the rituals, there is another ritual named- ‘Gahan Bije’, when the Puri queen, accompanied by her husband Puri King Gajapati performs a special prayer before the presiding deities of the Jagannath temple inside the sanctum sanctorum.
As per the tradition, the holy service was commissioned after King Dibya Singh Dev, considered the foremost servitor in front of Lord Jagannath.
According to the religious code Loknath Mudirasta, a minor servitor boy chosen earlier by the temple guided the queen and the king to the temple and performed a complex set of religious services to the three presiding deities – Lord Jagannath, his elder Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra on behalf of the queen.
As per Hindu tradition, women never enter the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. This unique tradition of ‘Gahan Bije’ empowers the queen to enter the sanctum sanctorum once in her lifetime thus providing her with the right of servitor to worship the deities. As per convention, the queen of Puri visits the temple along with the king once in her lifetime.
Apart from the family members of the Puri King, the invitees include royal couples of Nilagiri, Khandapara, Kalahandi, Jaipur, Bamanda, Bolangir, Kishengarh, Khadial and Dhenkanal. The privilege is also given to all the queens of other princely states of Odisha once in their lifetime to perform ‘Gahan Bije’.
