Puri Rath Yatra Pulls Huge Crowd

BY: SUN STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Lord Jagannatha's Ratha Yatra, 2011
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Photos: Sampradaya Sun

Jul 03, 2011 — JAGANNATHA PURI, ORISSA — All roads led to Puri on the auspicious occasion of Rath Yatra on Sunday. Unfazed by the unprecedented stampede, millions of pilgrims from the country and abroad thronged the temple town to witness the annual religious extravaganza.

Pilgrims of all hues turned up in large numbers and pulled the three iconic chariots of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra to Gundicha Temple, about 3 km from 12th century Jagannath shrine, in a gung-ho spirit.

Lord Jagannatha
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From dawn, devotees started occupying their positions in and around the temple to witness the Rath Yatra. Notwithstanding wide coverage of the grand festival on several television channels, the inflow of pilgrims has not dwindled.

Security was tightened in around the temple town that witnessed the footfall of around 10 lakh devotees on Rath Yatra. The stampedes during Rath Yatra in 2008 and 2010 and the alleged molestation of a group of women foreign tourists in 2008 threw questions on the security measures put up by the state government. This time, the administration shut most narrow lanes and by-lanes connecting the three km long Grand Road, where the three huge chariots carrying the Deities rolled amid the beating of kartals, mrdangas, gongs and people dancing in joy.

Bala Pahandi
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The government deployed over 5,000 men in uniform to regulate the visitors, many of whom had started arriving in the city early this week.

"The festival was smooth barring the tragic incident involving the death of an old man in crowd. It was not a stampede," a senior police officer said. The police had a trying to tame the teeming crowd.

The high point of this year's car festival was ‘discipline'. All the rituals, including the chhera pahanra (sweeping of chariot floors) by Puri Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb were completed much before the scheduled time.

Chera Pahnara
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However, mild tension gripped Lord Jagannath's Nandighos chariot, where a group of priests of the Singhari community threatened to boycott their service on the chariots, protesting the supremacy of another group of priests belonging to Daitapati community. The Singhari priests alleged that some Daitapati priests stripped off their traditional service of decorating the Deities aboard Their chariots.

"We were supposed to decorate the Deities. However, the Daitapati priests did it without our notice," Taluchha Bhagaban Mohapatra, a priest said. The Singhari priests lodged a strong protest near the temple administration. Some priests even booed the temple's Chief Administrator, P.K. Mohapatra, and Puri District Collector, Fakir Charan Satapathy, demanding action against the Daitapati priests.

"We managed to hold parleys between the Singhari and Daitapati priests. It was a minor issue. It has been sorted out," collector Satapathy said.

Chief Administrator Mohapatra said, "The minor tiff did not hamper rituals of the Deities. Rituals went on smoothly."

The railways on their part ran a number of special trains to the city. The festival will continue for nine days, until the three Deities return from the Gundicha shrine to the main temple. The return car festival, Bahuda Yatra, falls on July 11th.

Subhardra Pahandi
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