Puri: In Puri, there was an influx of humanity to participate in the Rath Yatra on Friday. This year’s Rath Yatra assumes significance as the festival was held in 2020 and 2021 amid restrictions and curfew due to the COVID pandemic.
Governor Ganeshi Lal, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Orissa High Court Chief Justice S Muralidhar among other dignitaries pulled the chariot of Lord Jagannath.
The main focus of this year’s Rath Yatra was the conduct of rituals ahead of time. The deities are scheduled to stay at the Gundicha temple till July 8 and leave for the Jagannath temple on July 9 on the occasion of Bahuda Yatra.
The deity will appear in golden avatar (Sun Besha) on chariots in front of the Jagannath temple on July 10. On July 12, the curtains will come on the Rath Yatra, in which the siblings will return to the sanctum sanctorum, Neeladri BJ Utsav.
The millennium-old Rath Yatra is considered to be one of the world’s longest surviving public celebrations. Even though the car festival is celebrated with equal enthusiasm in many places on earth, the Rath Yatra in Puri is still considered a major crowd puller.
Puri SP Kanwar Vishal Singh said that adequate security arrangements have been made for the smooth conduct of the festival. More than 185 platoon forces were deployed for incident free Rath Yatra.
Many devotees fainted due to the unbearable humidity in Puri. They were discharged from temporary health centers after treatment. No untoward incident has been reported till the time of writing this news.
The pulling of the chariots began after the ceremonial chherapahanara (cleaning of the chariot deck) by the Puri king Dibyasingh Deb, who is revered as the first servant of the gods. Like in previous years, devotees were not allowed to climb the chariots and touch the deities.
FacebookTwitterinstagramKu APPyoutube