Jagannath Rath Yatra 2023: Which Type Of Wood Is Used To Carve Lord Puri Jagannath And Why?

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To the ancient Indians, trees and plants were an indispensable way of communicating with the divine.

They were the roads that led to the supreme divine. Tulsi, banyan and host of other trees and plants were worshiped by them for fulfilling their aspirations.

Ayurveda also began as a result of research on the plants. They chose and handpicked the Neem Tree which is also a medicinal plant, for building the idols of Lord Jagannath and his siblings.

Neem was forever linked with the divine as so many remedies that are neem related have worked wonderfully in so many cases.

Varahamihir's 'Vrihat Samhita' describes materials needed for the construction of the idols. As per Bhavishya purana sun idols should be made of wood preferably.

There are mentions of other trees as well in Scriptures. Peepal, Mahua, Deodar, Sandal, Bel, Khadir, Anchan, Neem, Sriparna, Jackfruit tree, Arjun and Raktachandan are auspicious for making the idols.

But why Neem tree was chosen for creating the Jagannath idols is a question to unravel and know. Let us find out the reason behind choosing the neem tree for constructing Jagannath.

The worship of Lord Jagannath who is the Lord for everyone, from all sections of society needs to be carved out of a wood type that suits all categories of people and neem is the best choice for this.

Bhavishya purana says 'Nimbadyaah sarvavarnanam vrikshyah sadharanah smrutah', which proves that neem daru is good for all cross sections of people to worship. Another manuscript says that neem is the king of trees.

When Lord Jagannath temple was built, our ancient forefathers had decided that it would be for the use of every one.

This is about the God who is universally accepted and worshiped and the temple that is built for everyone who is devoted to the Lord.

The Brahmin Vidyapati, Kshatriya king Gajapati and the tribal Biswabasu play an important role in the ritualistic observances.

Since everything here has a feel of universal compassion, and universal applicability, we have to choose a universally agreeable tree to carve the deities from.

So worshippers of all classes and sects can access the Lord and take darshan as long as they like. They also had another idea here.

Once it is time for reconstruction of the idols, it is next to impossible to go in search of the right tree that is far away from Puri. So some auspicious tree that is in the suburbs of Puri has to be chosen.

Adjoining Puri and Kakatpur, we find large stretches of neem forests which are easily accessible for priests to visit and collect their wood pieces meant for construction.So ancients used to call this tree as Daru which is actually a tree of Indian origin.

It is full of therapeutic essence and neem trees are abundantly found in India, Neem trees that were supposed to be Daru trees were chosen from the forests in the vicinity of Puri.