Context
For the second consecutive year, the annual RathYatra of Lord Jagannath and his siblings in the holy town of Puri will be conducted without any devotees adhering to Covid-19 protocols.
Ratha Jatra
- RathaJatra, the Festival of Chariots of Lord Jagannatha is celebrated every year at Puri, the temple town in Orissa, on the east coast of India.
- The presiding deities of the main temple, Sri Mandira, Lord Jagannatha, Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra, with the celestial wheel Sudarshana are taken out from the temple on their respective chariots.
- The huge, colourfully decorated chariots, are drawn by hundreds and thousands of devotees on the badadanda, the grand avenue to the Gundicha temple, some two miles away to the North.
- After a stay for seven days, the deities return to their abode in Srimandira.
- The festival is also known as GundichaJatra, GhosaJatra, NavadinaJatra, DasavataraJatra and by a variety of other names.
- The description of the chariot has been explained in the Kathopanishada, SkandaPurana, Brahma Purana, Padma Purana, and KapilaSamhita, etc.
The Chariots
- The three chariots of Balabhadra, Subhadra and Jagannatha are newly constructed every year with wood of specified trees like phassi, dhausa, etc. customarily brought from the ex-princely state of Dasapalla, by a specialist team of carpenters.
- Lord Jagannatha’s Chariot is called Nandighosa; that of Lord Balabhadra is Taladhwaja; and the Chariot of Subhadra is known as Darpadalana.
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