Nabakalebara
The symbolic recreation of the four deities at Jagannath Temple, Puri.
Nabakalebara also spelled as Navakalevara (Odia: ନବ କଳେବର) is the ritualistic recreation of the wooden icons of four Hindu deities (Jagannath, Balabhadra, Subhadra, and Sudarshana) at Jagannath Temple, Puri. The ritual is performed during the 8th, 12th, or 19th year after the previous Nabakalebara.
Nabakalebara is an important festival in the Hindu Odia calendar, observed in the Jagannath Temple, Puri. It was first organised in 1575 A.D by Bhoi King Ramachandra Deva, his eldest son Padmanava Pattanaika had first performed the Nabakalebera ritual in Barunei fort of Khordhagarh. Deulakarana and Tadhaukarana subdivisions of Karanas play an important part in this ritual as representatives of Gajapati Raja, they guard the temple premises with the special sword (Pata Khanda) of Lord Jagannath in their hands. It marks the symbolic demise and rebirth of Jagannath at Puri. The event involves installation of new idols in the Jagannath temple and burial of the old ones in the temple premises at Koili Baikuntha.
Etymology
Nabakalebara is a combination of two Odia words: naba (new) and kalebara (body), translated as "new embodiment."
Timing
The year of Nabakalebara is when the full moon occurs twice during the month of Ashadha. Every three years in the Hindu calendar, a lunar month is excluded from the calculation to maintain a balance between lunar and solar years. This period is called Adhikmasa or Malamasa.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nabakalebara” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.