Puri Rath Yatra festival will start from July 1
Highlight
- Two wheels of a chariot were found defective and the axle had to be replaced
- After the completion of the construction of the chariots, the work of adornment will start.
- For last two years, entry for Rath Yatra in Puri was severely restricted due to COVID
The Puri Rath Yatra festival will begin from July 1 and Vishwakarma is currently busy making three big chariots for it. Before the festivities begin on June 14, the Snan Yatra Mahotsav will take place during which the three main idols, Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra, will be bathed with 108 pots of holy water. Soon after, the three idols will remain secret to the public and will be included in the Rath Yatra on July 1.
New chariots are built for the festival
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Two wheels of Lord Jagannath’s Nandighosh chariot were found to be defective and the axle had to be replaced when engineers from the construction department and Indian Railways came and inspected the wheels. The construction of the lower storeys of the three chariots began on Sunday.
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There are 21 axles for all the three chariots. Nandighosh chariot will have 8 axles for 16 wheels, Lord Balabhadra’s Taladhwaja chariot will have 7 axles with 14 wheels and Goddess Subhadra’s Darpa Dalana chariot will have 6 axles with 12 wheels, all made of wood and iron.
Aerial view of the chariots being built for the Rath Yatra
Giant chariot being built for Puri’s Rath Yatra
The work of carrying forward the Rath Yatra
After the completion of the construction of the chariots, the decoration work will start and by June 25, the entire work will be finished. Lord Jagannath’s chariot will be 36 feet high as against 20 feet height last year. The square shaped chariot will be 26 feet long and 26 feet wide. The height of each wheel is four feet.
Full return of Rath Yatra after COVID
For the past two years, the entry for the Rath Yatra in Puri was severely restricted due to the COVID pandemic. But it is expected that the district administration can lift all the restrictions on the number of devotees pulling the chariot this year.