Gaja Uddharana Besha
The Rescue of Gajendra
Feb 23, 2017 · 1 min read
The Gaja-Uddharana Besha depicts the Vaishnava tale of Gajendra-Moksha. Jagannatha rescues the elephant from the alligator in this spectacular costume done on the full-moon day of Magha. He sits on Garuda with Lakshmi sitting on his lap. Curiously, this is the only occassion in the entire year when Lakshmi sits on his lap.
Notice how Garuda carries him to the elephant, and how Gajendra holds out a lotus for him. This is one of the two occassions when Subhadra has hands- her original idol does not have any hands.
Patitapabana, the image of Jagannatha near the Singhadwara is only dressed in two Beshas- this is one of them.
