Some little known facts about the Jagannath Temple Mahaprasad of Puri

During the annual rath yatra or chariot festival of Lord Jagannath in Puri, mahaprasad is offered to all devotees and it is cooked on the premises of the temple at Ananda Bazar (abode of peace). This is believed to be the largest open-air eatery in the world where thousands of devotees buy and eat together irrespective of their caste, creed or status.
This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 30 July 2015.

This mahaprasad is prepared by a team of 600-700 cooks in earthen pots on wood fires and nearly 50,000 pilgrims take it daily, thus generating a business of Rs 8-12 lakhs. The total amount of ingredients that go into preparing this mahaprasad are 40 to 50 quintals rice and 20 quintal dal (pulses) daily. Then there are other vegetables to cook.
The cost of a kudua (assimilation of clay containers) containing rice and different types of dal and vegetables starts from Rs. 50.
The mouth-watering ‘Mahaprasad’ (food first offered to the deity) of the Jagannath Temple has managed to retain its appeal among tens of millions of devotees for ages. On an average, it cooked for around 20,000 people on any given day but, on special occasions, it goes up to nearly 50,000 people.
It seems Rs.800,000-Rs.10,00,000 are generated every day from the sale of Mahaprasad.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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