The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.s1.276

v2.c17.s1.276

The images appear under very different garbs at different times of the day and on ceremonial occasions, so that they do not appear the same to visitors coming at different times. Each dress is called a *Bhūyi* or *Veśa*, and to make the *Bhūyi* is significant: the heads, the hands and the bodies of the images are so enveloped in cloth and other accessories that their appearance is completely changed. The first *Bhūyi* at dawn is the simplest. It is put on when the divinities are supposed to rise from their beds, and is called *Maṅgalārati-veśa*. Then comes the *Avakāśa-veśa*, or dishabille, or leisure-hour dress, in which the divinities pass a good part of the morning. It is replaced by the *Prahara-veśa* or the afternoon dress. The next is *Candanālāgi-veśa*, or that which the divinities put on when they smear themselves with sandal-paste. The most important in the eyes of the faithful is the Baḍa-śṛṅgāra-veśa or court dress, which is put on soon after dusk, immediately after the *Sandhyā-dhūpa* or vesper meal. Of occasional dresses, the *Buddha-veśa* or the garb of Buddha is significant, as suggestive of the relation of Jagannātha to Buddha. This dress is put on certain days in the month of April. [ 128 ] In the *Dāmodara-veśa* Jagannātha is dressed like a child, and then tied to a post by a rope round his waist. This is emblematic of an incidence in the life of Kṛṣṇa, who, when a little boy, had stolen curds from a neighbour’s house and his mother had tied him up to a post by way of punishment. The *Pābandi-veśa* or tying by the feet is a representation of another incidence of the same kind. In the *Vāmana-veśa*, put on in the month of Bhādra, the god appears as a dwarf holding a big umbrella to typify the dwarf incarnation of Viṣṇu. The other incarnations are also represented. Immediately after the Bathing Festival the god is provided with a trunk and made to represent Gaṇeśa, whence the name of the dress *Gaṇeśa-veśa*.