Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra embark on their annual pilgrimage
The grand annual nine-day Rath Yatra, or Chariot Festival began today. The original festival is held in Puri, and smaller versions in various places.
In Bengal, the festival in Mahesh in Hooghly district is the biggest, and is, in fact, the second oldest in India (as well as the world), after the one in Puri. Two other big ones in Bengal are the yatras held in Nabadwip and Kolkata, both organised by ISKCON.
The nine-day festival comprises the journey of Lord Jagannath (an avatar of the god Vishnu), carrying along his weapon, the Sudarshan Chakra, his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra from their abode of Jagannath Temple to their aunt’s place, staying there for seven days and coming back by the ninth day. The destination is Gundicha Temple near Puri, 3 km away, along a route called ‘Bada Danda’ in Odia, or ‘Grand Road’.
At all the major Rath Yatras, thousands to lakhs of people gather to pull the chariot, a holy ritual for many. This is a major tourist attraction too in eastern India.
In the historical locality of Mahesh, located in the town of Serampore, a once-thriving Danish trading outpost with a historical legacy of its own, the journey takes place from the Jagannath Temple there to Mahesh Gundicha Bati (also called Kunja Bati). Interestingly, this chariot is an iron chariot, built by Martin Burn Company in 1885 on the order of Dewan Krishnachandra Basu, the then head of the Basu family which organises the festival.
