From where I stand on Puri�s main road, I can see the main tower of the Shri Jagannath Temple rising majestically into the sky, a 65-metre high structure in the heart of the city with a yellow flag fluttering from the peak gaily in the sea breeze. It is a 12th century A.D. monument with all the richness of the Kalinga style of architecture and embellished with intricate sculptural motifs. One of the four main dhams (a holy centre) of India, home of Lord Balabhadra, Goddess Subhadra and Lord Jagannath. Apart from the main temple which commands the landscape for miles around, I can also see within the precincts of the Shri Jagannath Temple the tops of several other small temples which I am told are of the Lord Vishnu and the Goddesses Vimala and Laxmi.

I am outside with Farzana Contractor because entry into the temple is restricted to Hindus only. The Shri Jagannath Temple is one of the world�s most revered places of religious worship. People come here from far and wide. And people from all faiths manage to find their way in. But I decide to keep the temple administration�s faith and respect their wishes. I stay out and wait to do my story. It is on the different kinds of food offerings, the bhog, made to the deities in the temple. Normally, this is done six times a day. But besides the offerings made on behalf of the temple administration, large quantities of food are made for sale to the public. It is offered to them at a community kitchen for Rs. 10 a plate. Bhog is also cooked at the cost of different monasteries and individuals. These offerings are taken out of the temple premises and and carried to the residences of whoever has paid for them.

I am on the road waiting to catch the men who deliver this food to the people who have ordered it. I cannot, of course, eat or even touch this food. Besides, it is ordained that complete sanctity should be maintained while eating it. But this is my only hope of coming close to the bhog that is offered to Lord Jagannath. I am keen to see what it is like. And standing with Farzana and me is Sahadev Khuntia, a cook from the Shri Jagannath Temple. He is one of the men who have rights over the hearths in the temple kitchen and who has made the bhog that day. Men like Sahadev are known as �supakaras� (which means cooks). He is 36 years old. Twenty of these years he has spent in the kitchen of the Shri Jagannath Temple, first learning how to cook, then serving the Lord as his cook.

Sahadev is in the process of pointing out the kitchen of the temple to me, when out of the main gates burst a team of men bearing earthen vessels on their heads in cane baskets. The men are dressed in lungis and singlets. And they are barefeet. The vessels are known as kuduas. In the kuduas, Sahadev tells me excitedly, is the bhog. He hails the bearers of the food and they stop, glad to rest their feet and put their baskets down. I peer into the kuduas curiously. Most are packed tight and overflowing with rice. A few have a yellow-coloured dal. And one has a vegetable curry that Sahadev said is called Mahura. �This,� he tells me, �is the Lord�s prasad. People call for it from as far as 200 kilometres away. It is delivered by runners or by a tempo.� People call for it when there is a birth in the family or even a death. Or when they are holding a puja. The supakaras cook for upto 50,000 a day.

I look in the distance where I can see the smoke-blackened top of the temple�s kitchen. �Other supakaras are cooking the next bhog,� Sahadev informs me. The kitchen has woodfire sigdis. There are 752 in all and for these there are 752 cooks. The kitchen is dark, it is illuminated by diyas, and there is no electricity or gas here. The cooks are not salaried employees of the temple. Nor do they go out and offer their culinary services for money. Their service is only to the Lord. I ask him what the food is like. �It is pure vegetarian saatvik khana,� he replies, �made without onion and garlic. There is no use of potato and tomato too. Pulses are used, instead. No chilli and no spices go into the bhog. It is simple food made in pure ghee.� And how does it taste, I ask him, dying to sample Lord Jagannath�s bhog. �It tastes great, naturally,� he replies, astonished I should be asking.