The 'Ratha Yatra' or Car Festival of Lord Jagannath is a unique festival, when lakhs of people from all over the world assemble in Neelachal Srikshetra - Puri to pull the splendidly decorated sacred chariots of Lords Jagannath, Balabhadra and their sister Goddess Subhadra. These presiding deities of the Sri Mandira leave the sanctum sanctorum suspending their routine temple rituals and come out to the masses. The occasion comes once every year on Asadha Sukla Dvitiya according to Hindu calendar. This year the festival falls on 14th July.
During the festival the Lords are consigned exclusively to the care of the non- Brahmin sevayats, particularly of aboriginal Savara origin. Radiantly decorated wooden chariots called Nandighosa, Taladhwaja and Devadalana with Gods Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra enthroned respectively, are pulled by millions of people irrespective of caste and creed. Passing through a very wide road Bada danda, the procession ultimately reaches at Shri Gundicha temple (their maternal aunt's abode), at a distance of three km. where the deities sojourn for a week. As the legend goes, it is here, that the deities were first chiseled into their present shapes. The return journey (Bahuda Yatra) takes place on the 9th day or Asadha Sukla Dasami that is falling this year on July 22, 1999. In a similar protocol the two Lords with sister Devi Subhadra are brought back to the main temple amidst lots of rejoicing.
On Asadha Sukla Dvitiya, the massive deities are displaced from the Ratnasimhasana one by one in a pahandi procession which means pushing and jugging the idols from the sanctum sanctorum to the chariots. First Sudarshana and Subhadra are brought to the chariots followed by Balabhadra and Jagannath. The pahandi procession mostly takes place inside the temple and the public witnesses only a part of it when the deities are ushered into their respective chariots.
The Raja of Puri traditionally conducts the 'chherapamhara' or moping of the platform of the chariot as the first servitor of Lord Jagannath. Important mathas at Puri make various presents to the deities on behalf of their institutions. Devotees go on singing and dancing in accompaniment with their musical instruments while the chariots rumble through the main road. The 13.5 metres high 16 wheeled Nandighosha draped in red and yellow fabric, 13.2 metres high 14 wheeled Taladhwaja in red and deep green and the 12.9 metres high 12 wheeled Devadalana in red and black look like mobile temples surging ahead amidst a sea of people.
The permanent temple of the three lords, the gigantic Sri Mandir that stands on a height of 214 ft. 8 inches from the road-level at the Grand Road, was built on a huge sand dune in the mid- 12th century. One of the greatest masterpieces of Kalinga architecture, it is a three-tier temple with curvilinear superstructure and consists of several parts known as deula, jagamohana, bhoga mandapa and natamandira. The temple has two massive enclosures as Kurma Bedha, the inner-enclosure of 400 ft. length and 278 ft. width and Meghanada Prachira or the outer-enclosure, 665 ft. long and 644 ft. wide and four wide entrance doors. On the front of the Simhadwara, the eastern gateway or main-entrance, there stands the 26ft.high Aruna pillar which was brought from the Sun Temple, Konark in the 18th Century. According to Sanskrit literary sources the Car Festival was in vogue in the 9th century even before the present Puri temple was constructed. The temple of Lord Jagannath is a pulsating centre of activity throughout the year. Perched toweringly on the golden beach of the eastern sea, it moves the fancy of millions of devotees all over India for its unique catholicity in the whole of the Hindu pantheon. Historian W.W. Hunter in his book -`History of Orissa' has rightly observed : 'The true source of Jagannath's undying hold upon the Hindu race consists in the fact that he is the God of the people. As long as His towers rise upon the Puri sands so long there will be in India, a perpetual and visible protest of equality of man before God.'
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