Latest news with #Dasmahapatra
Straits Times
11-07-2025
- General
- Straits Times
‘Woven air': Ancient fabric spun across history makes comeback amid lies and climate change
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Mr Peter Lee, a textile collector, has many 18th and 19th century muslin fabrics. Here, he holds a modern muslin sari he bought from Bangladesh's revival project. The sari was gorgeous, sheer – and dubious. The advertisement said it was made of muslin, an elegant, luxuriously soft cotton fabric once favoured by Mughal and European queens. Dr Pritha Dasmahapatra was intrigued: At 2,000 rupees (S$30), this would be a steal. But how was it possible? This 46-year-old obstetrician from London and textile hobbyist, who grew up in Kolkata, India, has loved saris for as long as she can remember. She knew that muslin was a rare and exotic fabric, often called 'woven air' for its transparency and lightness. She also knew that it had many impostors. Muslin was a wonder-cloth from erstwhile Bengal – now split between Bangladesh and West Bengal in India – patronised by Mughal royalty, worn by Roman nobles, loved by French queen Marie Antoinette and embroidered by author Jane Austen. Its sheerness was its glamour; it could famously pass through a ring but was so strong that a needle could not easily pierce it. But the growing global demand for this miraculous fabric also led to its demise. Fine handwoven muslin vanished in the late 18th century, edged out by machine-made imitations in England and the extinction of the fragile indigenous cotton plant in the incessant floods of Dhaka. Expert spinners and weavers fell to debt bondage and the Indian census of 1901 says that many abandoned the loom for the plough. So what is the muslin out there in the markets today? In Singapore, baby swaddles, soft but thick, are sold as muslin. In the US, some people call thin cheesecloth or jam strainers muslin. It is thought in Europe to be the backdrop in photo studios. But these could not possibly be the same material that had enthralled the world's elite for a century. Was muslin truly gone then, or was it hiding in plain sight? Dr Dasmahapatra had found a mystery she desperately needed to solve. Finding old muslin The hunt for answers took her to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2022 , where she had completed a course on the textiles of South Asia some years earlier . The museum has an enviable collection of colonial-era muslin and, at Dr Dasmahapatra's request, the curator brought out four categories of muslin from the mid-1800s. They had to be run on one's fingers – it was the only way to know the real deal. 'It was unlike any fabric I have ever touched – until then or since,' Dr Dasmahapatra told The Straits Times, adding that even average-grade muslin from the 1800s felt 'more luxurious than the best cotton we are used to today'. The finest muslin, the mulmul khas reserved for royalty, was so translucent and weightless that she understood why court poets described it as morning dew. She could barely feel it on her skin. It was so airy not because muslin is a loose weave, but because it is densely packed with the finest, thinnest yarn – the kind that is still impossible to make in cloth mills or automated looms. The threads came from the cotton plant Gossypium arboreum var. neglecta – locally known as phuti karpas – that once grew near the Meghna river near Dhaka city , and gave the fabric its lightness and tensile strength . Thousands of spinners – mostly women – and weavers from undivided Bengal used their skill, eagle-eyes and dextrous fingers to turn this brittle raw cotton into the finest quality fabric in the world in at least 16 time-consuming steps. 'Historic muslin might have had a thread count of at least 1,000 to 1,800 per square inch,' Dr Dasmahapatra said. To compare, a premium cotton shirt from a designer brand today has a thread count of not more than 80 to 100. 'All muslin is transparent and soft, but not everything transparent is muslin,' she added. Dr Dasmahapatra learnt that muslin wasn't yet another handmade item that had become less perfect with time. Without phuti karpas and highly skilled spinners and weavers, high-quality muslin is legitimately painstaking – and almost impossible – to make today. But it has not stopped people from trying. Even though the fabric that fell like water over the body is no more, muslin's brand and legend still endure, not just as a promise of textile magic or coveted piece of luxury, but almost as an unreachable ideal. Dr Pritha Dasmahapatra on one of her research trips from London to villages in West Bengal's weaving zones. PHOTO: COURTESY OF PRITHA DASMAHAPATRA Revival in Bangladesh To some, like Mr Saiful Islam, muslin was a piece of lost heritage that had to be resurrected. The engineer and former businessman living in London was incensed that the best pieces of Bengal muslin were all stored in museums and private collections outside Bangladesh, where he is from. 'Muslin's story is one of immense attraction and enormous neglect. It was a world fabric once, and it came from Bengal. But we don't have even one sample of 18th-century muslin to our name,' he told ST. Mr Islam wanted to not only set 'the distorted history' straight but also revive the legendary material. 'I saw it as a symbolic restoration of our identity,' he said , wanting the world to see Bangladesh as beyond a hub for cheap fast fashion and garment sweatshops, and as home to the world's finest craftspeople . First, the original cotton plant had to be found. No seed sample survived, but he found a pressed phuti karpas plant in London's Kew Gardens, a botanical museum. A small team went to Bangladesh in 2014, searching for look-alikes by boat along the Meghna river , in the areas records show phuti karpas used to grow . In 2017, they found one wild cotton plant near Dhaka, whose maple-like leaves looked excitingly similar to the painting they had. Genome matching in London and India resulted in a match – 'not a 100 per cent but good enough at 70 per cent'. Mr Saiful Islam comparing a painting from Kew Gardens of the extinct phuti karpas plant, with a modern day variant in the fields near river Meghna in Bangladesh. PHOTO: COURTESY OF DRIK-BENGAL MUSLIN Mr Islam's team tried to farm this rare wild cotton and succeeded after a few failed experiments. With trained master weavers and spinners, his organisation, Bengal Muslin, has been gradually climbing the thread count from 100, 200, 300 to now producing a few grand samples of extremely fine muslin with 400 thread count , some of them even with intricately hand-embroidered jamdani patterns unique to Bangladesh . Mr Islam calls it 'new muslin'. 'Our idea is not to commercialise muslin or make an industry. It is just to recapture the history and heritage, and recognise the time, artists and talents it takes to create this beautiful item.' As Mr Islam's grand feat became the toast of textile nerds, in 2022, Singapore's textile collector and researcher Peter Lee quickly bought an off-white 300-count 'new muslin' sari – the highest count at the time. The honorary curator of the National University of Singapore's Baba House, who has been collecting Asian textiles since the nineties, said he was drawn to muslin due to its 'historical mystique and aesthetic of transparency and fineness' that made it utterly stylish. The muslin bought from a revival project in Bangladesh by Mr Peter Lee, a textile collector and curator. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM In his collection, Mr Lee has a muslin sari made for the Deccani court with silver embroidery called khamdani, Dhaka jamdani saris made in the 20th century, muslin dresses and scarves exported to Europe in the 18th and 19th century, and even one 19th-century muslin dress made for the Malay world. 'It was so modern to see cotton so fine,' he said. As he learnt more about muslin, Mr Lee said he realised that the storied fabric was a glorious example of 'global connections that defy boundaries'. Reborn in skilled hands Across Bangladesh's borders in India, muslin's recent revival is focused on the hands that make it. In Devipur village in West Bengal's Bardhaman district, Mr Sambhunath Guin stopped the rhythmic clack-clackety-clack of his wooden loom to twist a broken thread of shiny cotton. Readjusting his spectacles, he said dreamily that India had just sent an astronaut from Bengal to space. 'How far man has come! We are doing things that seemed impossible before,' he said. Mr Guin, 60, and his spinner wife Kuheli, 48, do the impossible for eight to 12 hours daily – they make muslin with a 500 to 550 thread count, arguably the highest in the world right now. Only a handful of people in the world can do this, textile experts told ST. Weaver Sambhunath Guin and his spinner wife Kuheli Guin are among the few in the world who can expertly make 500-thread count muslin. ST PHOTO: ROHINI MOHAN Fine muslin beyond a 200 thread count cannot be spun or woven in machines. Even today, the cotton must be spun in a hand-operated wheel called a charkha , delicate hands and sharp eyes arresting the frequently snapping fibres . Then, a person with decades of skill makes the dense warp and weft on a typical Bengali-style pit loom , starching every few centimetres with a homemade rice gum for durability . Mr Guin inherited the skill from his father and grandfather , who may have woven muslin for export or local elites . Mrs Guin said the couple work at dawn and through dusk, because cool, humid weather keeps the fibres stuck and high temperatures dry them out. They are often able to make only a single, perfect metre of plain muslin in a single day. Today, the Guins are among a handful of artists in the world who produce the highest-quality muslin for the Matiary Kutir Shilpa Pratisthan, a government-certified cooperative that has trained 77 spinners and 35 weavers to make muslin over the past five years. Unlike their Bangladesh counterpart, Mr Subhasis Chakraborty, the Pratishthan's secretary, said that their weavers and spinners use suvin cotton, an extra-long fibre cotton grown in South India's Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu states. The cooperative is facilitating the West Bengal government's Project Muslin, an initiative established in 2018 to revive muslin. It has trained around 500 spinners and weavers to make muslin with a higher than 400 thread count , invested in traditional looms and spinning wheels, and expanded muslin's market around the country. The West Bengal state government has focused its efforts on nine districts including Nadia, Malda, Murshidabad and Santipur, the very regions of Bengal, along with Dhaka, which once wove fine muslin of world renown. In 2024, the Indian government gave muslin from this region a geographical indication tag, which means that only cotton with over 200 thread count from these districts can be called muslin. 'We found some weavers and spinners who have inherited the knowledge of producing muslin – we want to grow their numbers , before more of them quit the trade amid stagnant incomes to work at malls, farms and construction sites ,' said Mr Mridul Haldar, the chief executive of the West Bengal Khadi and Village Industries Board that helms Project Muslin. What's heartbreaking, though, is that the world's most sought-after muslin artisans like the Guins earn barely 8,000 rupees a month. They are paid around 3,600 rupees for the standard 11 metres of 500-count white muslin, which takes them 15 days to produce. Living on the edge of poverty, the Guins were forced to take microfinance loans for their two daughters' weddings and their half-built house has been gathering moss for five years as they save up to afford doors, paint and tiles . The Pratisthan sells the fabric at a wholesale rate of 4,350 rupees per metre. In retail stores in Kolkata, ST found the same fabric sold for 6,000 to 8,000 rupees per metre. At the Biswa Bangla store in Kolkata's Park Street, a middle-aged woman marvelled at a lemon yellow muslin sari woven with silver embroidery, but when she heard the price – 130,000 rupees – she dropped it like a hot potato. 'For a cotton sari?' she mumbled. A regular cotton sari can cost between 300 and 10,000 rupees. Muslin today Muslin is seeing a resurrection today, but the fabric's slow, fussy, handmade essence stands in contrast to our fast, consumerist lives. In that very contrast lies muslin's allure – and its struggle. Ms Rajeswari Mavuri, who runs the boutique Label Rama in Hyderabad, sources muslin from West Bengal weavers for her well-heeled customers in India and France , for whom handmade spells luxury . 'Very few people understand that handcrafted goods are premium. Hundreds of brands say they are sustainable but use chemical dyes, use polyester or silk threads in muslin yardage, or pass off loosely woven unstarched cotton as muslin,' she said. Mr Biren Kumar Basak, a national award-winning master weaver from Fulia, who works with muslin specialists to create meenakari jamdani , said: 'There is no shortage of demand or respect for muslin today, but most customers do not want to pay the high rates. 'I can name the 500-count weavers left in Bengal. They are all aged. In 10 years, who knows if anyone will be left to make muslin,' he added. Several spinners and weavers told ST that they did not want their children to continue the profession. Mr Badal Rai and his wife Chobi Rai, who make 300 to 400 thread count muslin in Nabadwip, told ST they educated their son 'to get smart enough to get a government job'. Mr Tinku Basak in Fulia in West Bengal worried every time his nine-year-old daughter came to hang around the wooden loom he has spent his lifetime on. 'This is beautiful work, but it is also thankless, low-paying work,' he said. When customers don't pay the right rates, cheaper versions fill the market. Dr Dasmahapatra said that ever since muslin made a comeback, she has had a feeling of deja vu. 'Everything we blamed the British for, we are doing today. Muslin ceased to exist because they wanted it cheap and fast, which was not sustainable, leading to weavers being underpaid and overworked, the handwoven stuff losing finesse, and cheap knock-offs filling the pent-up demand. We are repeating that now,' she told ST. She said stories of muslin revival and curiosity about its famed softness 'are creating Fomo (fear of missing out) among textile lovers, but since most cannot afford real muslin, they buy fake ones'. A balance between pricing and demand is key to protecting the exclusivity of muslin, she felt. 'Ownership is not the point. Have an interest in the textile, be mesmerised by its beauty , marvel at something that is the pinnacle of human skill . Everyone doesn't need to buy it.'
Hans India
13-05-2025
- Hans India
SJTA suspends senior servitor for 30 days
Puri: The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) on Sunday suspended senior servitor Ramakrushna Dasmahapatra for 30 days and barred him from entering the 12th-century Puri temple after he attended the consecration ceremony of Digha Jagannath Temple in West Bengal and was accused of indiscipline. An official statement by SJTA Chief Administrator Arabinda Padhee said Dasmahapatra had been suspended from all temple duties and prohibited from performing rituals at the Puri Jagannath Temple for a month. Dasmahapatra, who also serves as the secretary of the Daitapati Nijog — a group of servitors who act as the ceremonial bodyguards of the deities during the annual Rath Yatra — has been instructed not to influence or threaten any servitor or individual in an attempt to obstruct temple services or rituals during the suspension period. 'If he does so, the suspension period will be extended and stricter disciplinary action will be taken. During this period, the commander and senior supervisor of the temple will regularly report to Padhee on Dasmahapatra's conduct,' the statement added. The order also stated that if Dasmahapatra's 'disorderly' behaviour is observed during the suspension period and thereafter, the temple administration will cancel or suspend the allowances/pay/awards he is entitled. Prior to the disciplinary action, the SJTA had issued two show-cause notices to Dasmahapatra. The first, dated May 4, directed him to explain within seven days why he allegedly violated temple tradition by crafting idols for the Digha Jagannath Temple using sacred wood collected during the Nabakalebara festival in 2015 — an act that hurt the religious sentiments of devotees worldwide. He was also questioned for allegedly making 'disorderly' and 'irresponsible' remarks on a Bengali television channel, where he initially claimed to have crafted the idols for Digha temple with the surplus sacred wood of Puri temple. However, he later denied the allegation. The State government, through an inquiry, found that the idols for Digha temple were crafted by a carpenter in Bhubaneswar, State Law Minister Pritihiviarj Harichandan had told reporters. A second notice was issued on May 9, asking Dasmahapatra to explain why he attended the consecration event at the Digha temple in his capacity as a Puri servitor, and whether he objected to the temple being referred to as a 'Dham' by the Digha Jagannath Temple Trust. Chief Administrator Padhee emphasised the decision aims to uphold order and discipline within the temple premises. 'It is the duty of all of us to uphold the tradition, rituals and dignity of the temple keeping self above pride and arrogance and this should be a demonstration of our devotion to Lord Jagannath. In the coming days also, no kind of disorder will be tolerated,' Padhee said.
Hindustan Times
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Puri Jagannath temple suspends senior servitor, denies him entry to shrine for 30 days
Puri/Kolkata, The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration on Sunday suspended senior servitor Ramakrushna Dasmohapatra for 30 days and barred him from entering the 12th-century Puri temple after he attended the consecration ceremony of Digha Jagannath Temple in West Bengal and was accused of indiscipline. An official statement by SJTA chief administrator Arabinda Padhee said Dasmahapatra had been suspended from all temple duties and prohibited from performing rituals at the Puri Jagannath Temple for a month. Dasmohapatra, who also serves as the secretary of the Daitapati Nijog — a group of servitors who act as the ceremonial bodyguards of the deities during the annual Rath Yatra — has been instructed not to influence or threaten any servitor or individual in an attempt to obstruct temple services or rituals during the suspension period. "If he does so, the suspension period will be extended and stricter disciplinary action will be taken. During this period, the commander and senior supervisor of the temple will regularly report to Padhee on Dasmahapatra's conduct," the statement added. The order also stated that if Dasmohapatra's "disorderly" behaviour is observed during the suspension period and thereafter, the temple administration will cancel or suspend the allowances/pay/awards he is entitled. Prior to the disciplinary action, the SJTA had issued two show-cause notices to Dasmahapatra. The first, dated May 4, directed him to explain within seven days why he allegedly violated temple tradition by crafting idols for the Digha Jagannath Temple using sacred wood collected during the Nabakalebara festival in 2015 — an act that hurt the religious sentiments of devotees worldwide. He was also questioned for allegedly making "disorderly" and "irresponsible" remarks on a Bengali television channel, where he initially claimed to have crafted the idols for Digha temple with the surplus sacred wood of Puri temple. However, he later denied the allegation. The state government through an inquiry found that Dasmohapatra had lied to the Bengali channel and the idols for Digha temple were crafted by a carpenter in Bhubaneswar, state Law Minister Pritihiviarj Harichandan had told reporters. A second notice was issued on May 9, asking Dasmohapatra to explain why he attended the consecration event at the Digha temple in his capacity as a Puri servitor, and whether he objected to the temple being referred to as a "Dham" by the Digha Jagannath Temple Trust. Chief Administrator Padhee emphasised the decision aims to uphold order and discipline within the temple premises. "It is the duty of all of us to uphold the tradition, rituals and dignity of the temple keeping self above pride and arrogance and this should be a demonstration of our devotion to Lord Jagannath. In the coming days also, no kind of disorder will be tolerated," Padhee said. Taking to X, Puri Shankaracharya Swami Nischalananda Saraswati said, "Shri Jagannathpuri situated in Utkal province is Shri Jagannath-Dham. Use of this fact somewhere else is completely inappropriate". Leader of the opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, welcomed the decision to suspend Dasmahapatro "in light of his unethical involvement in the Digha Jagannath Cultural Center controversy". In a post on X, Adhikari said, "He got influenced by Mamata Banerjee and provided unauthorised guidance for the replication of Puri Mahaprabhu Shree Jagannath Dham's sacred rituals and traditions, which later led to absolutely inappropriate misleading campaign by the local administration, by projecting the Digha Cultural Center as a site which would rival the Puri Mahaprabhu Shree Jagannath Dham." Dasmohapatra has deeply hurt the religious sentiments of millions of devotees worldwide, he said. "This suspension sends a strong message, that the sanctity of our revered Mahaprabhu Shree Jagannath Dham in Puri, must be upheld. The Sanatani Community would certainly be happy about the decision," he added.
Hans India
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
SJTA issues another notice to Puri servitor
Puri: The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) on Friday issued another show cause notice to senior servitor Ramakrushna Dasmahapatra, asking him to explain the reason behind his active participation in the consecration ceremony of the Jagannath temple at Digha in West Bengal. Dasmahapatra, the secretary of the Daitapati Nijog (a group of servitors who are considered bodyguards of the Puri deities), was among over 55 servitors of the Puri temple, who participated in the inaugural session of the Digha was seen in photographs and videos taking a lead role in performing rituals at the Digha temple in the presence of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The Digha temple was inaugurated on Akshaya Tritiya on April 30. 'The pictures and videos of Dasmahapatra participating in the inauguration programme of the Sri Jagannath Temple in Digha and leading the group of servitors have been widely circulated in various media. It has come to our attention that during the inauguration of the Digha temple, a plaque was put up to this effect with the inscription 'Jagannath Dham-Digha',' the notice mentioned. Stating that Puri is the holy abode of the supreme deity Sri Purusottam Jagannath, the notice said that according to scriptures, it is one of the most important 'dhams' among the four 'dhams' of India.'Despite being aware of this as a senior servitor of Lord Jagannath temple, his participation in the inaugural session of the Digha temple has created confusion among the devotees regarding the tradition of the temple and has hurt the religious sentiments of countless Shri Jagannath devotees,' the notice said. Therefore, the SJTA wanted to know as to why did he (Dasmahapatra) participated in a programme titled 'Jagannath Dham-Digha' as a senior servitor of the 12th century shrine in Puri.'Whether you (Dasmahapatra) had protested before the Digha Temple Trust Board opposing the mention of 'dham' in the plaque,' the notice asked. The fresh show cause notice asked Dasmahapatra to submit an explanation to the SJTA chief administrator Arabinda Padhee, who is a senior IAS officer, within two days of receiving the notice.'If a satisfactory explanation is not received within this time, action will be taken under the Sri Jagannath Temple Act, 1955,' the notice said. Earlier, Dasmahapatra was issued the first show cause notice and questioned by the SJTA for 90 minutes after he claimed before a Bengali television channel that he had brought the sacred wood from the Puri temple and crafted the idols for the Digha temple. However, later, Odisha's Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan had clarified that 'the idols for Digha temple were crafted by a carpenter at Bhubaneswar by using simple neem wood and not the sacred wood from the Puri temple.' Earlier, the use of word 'dham' by the temple at Digha was strongly opposed by Odisha government, Gajapati Maharaja of Puri, Shankaracharya of Govardhan Peeth, Shankaracharya of Jyotish Peeth and many devotees.
Hans India
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
Puri sacred wood not used in making Digha idols: Harichandan
Bhubaneswar: Odisha Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan on Monday said according to an interim investigation report, no sacred wood from Puri Jagannath temple was used to make the idols installed at a temple in Digha in West Bengal, as was alleged by various quarters. The Odisha government also urged the authorities in West Bengal to refrain from using 'dham' with newly built Jagannath temple at Digha and stop projecting the sea there as 'Mahodadhi' (the great ocean). Though both seas at Digha and Puri are the same, the Bay of Bengal, the one at Puri is called 'Mahodadhi' as the Odisha town with the 12th-century Jagannath shrine is considered a sacred place of pilgrimage. The Law Minister also threatened to take legal steps against the West Bengal government if it does not stop referring to the Digha temple as a 'Jagannath Dham'. The alleged use of sacred wood of the Puri temple in crafting idols of the shrine at Digha and treating the West Bengal temple as a 'Jagannath Dham' by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who inaugurated it last week, sparked off a huge controversy. Harichandan had asked the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) of Puri on May 2 to investigate the matter. The administration of the temple in Puri is under the Law department of the Odisha government. The SJTA on Sunday questioned a senior servitor as part of its investigation. The servitor, 'Daitapati Nijog' secretary Ramakrushna Dasmahapatra, attended and supervised the consecration ceremony at the Digha temple in the presence of Mamata Banerjee on April 30. 'Daitapati Nijog' is a group of servitors considered bodyguards of Lord Jagannath. 'I have received the interim report from the SJTA Chief Administrator and the State's Law department Secretary. It was found during the investigation that the senior Daitapati servitor had crafted the idols of Lord Balabhadra, Devi Subhadra and Lord Jagannath in Odisha and taken them to Digha,' the minister told reporters. 'But, those idols were made by a carpenter in Bhubaneswar by using neem wood and not the sacred wood stored in Daru Gruha (wood store room) of the Puri temple as alleged. We have verified it from the Bhubaneswar carpenter who crafted the idols,' he said. It was alleged that some Puri servitors used leftover 'neem' wood from the 2015 'Nabakalebara' (new form) ritual to make the idols for the shrine in Digha. 'Nabakalebara' is a ritual held every 12 or 19 years, during which the wooden bodies of the three idols are changed at the Puri temple. The claim about the use of wood from the Puri temple came after Dasmahapatra's interview was telecast by a Bengali news channel. On this, the minister said, 'He (Dasmahapatra) has admitted during questioning by the SJTA that it was a slip of the tongue and he had no such ill intention. Still, the SJTA has issued him a show cause notice asking him to reply within seven days from Sunday.' Apart from Dasmahapatra, who is known as Rajesh Daitapati in West Bengal, over 50 other servitors from the Puri temple reportedly attended the consecration ceremony at the Digha temple. Harichandran also appealed to the West Bengal government not to use the title 'dham' with the Jagannath temple of Digha. 'They (the SJTA and the Law department Secretary) have made certain recommendations after taking the opinions of various groups of servitors at the Puri temple. None of them objected to a Shree Jagannath temple anywhere in the country. But the title 'dham' cannot be used arbitrarily and all sea cannot be called 'Mahodadhi',' Harichandan said. The minister said the State administration has decided to request the West Bengal government to withdraw the 'dham' title from the temple and stop projecting the sea at Digha as 'Mahodadhi'. 'If they (West Bengal government) does not respond to our request, we will be forced to take legal recourse,' Harichandan said. The Law Minister said the SJTA would soon issue guidelines for various Jagannath temples across the country and an SOP for the servitors of Puri temple to avoid confusion and controversies in future.
