Bhubaneswar: As chariots of the three Lords were pulled by the devotees with much devotion and fanfare in Puri, various organisations and institutions of the Capital City also organised Ratha Jatra at several Jagannath temples, Tuesday. Major among these Ratha Jatras were those organised at VSS Nagar, Old Town, Utkal University campus, KISS, Niladri Vihar and Laxmi Sagar. On Utkal University premises, the festival was celebrated in the presence of students and vice-chancellor Sabita Acharya, who performed the Chhera Panhara ritual, after which the Rath was pulled by the university students. At KISS Shrivani Kshetra, the Ratha Jatra was observed with the completion of religious ceremonies like mangala arati, mailama, tadapalagi, rosha homa, abakasha and surya puja in the forenoon. While the chariots were consecrated as per the prescribed norms, the ceremonial Chhera Panhara was performed by KIIT-KISS founder Achyuta Samanta.
At around 4:30 pm, thousands of devotees pulled the three chariots of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra, and Devi Subhadra up to the newly-built Gundicha Temple near the KIITSikharchandi Road. The atmosphere along the Ratha Danda near KISS was filled with devotees’ religious recitals and chanting of Jai Jagannath. The special thing about Ratha Jatra at Shrivani Kshetra is that the chariot of Devi Subhadra is pulled by women devotees. And in Shrivani Kshetra, during this nine-day festival, there will be ‘bhajan samaroh’ near Gundicha Temple every evening.
Similarly, residents of the Veer Surendra Sai Nagar observed their 16th Ratha Jatra this year with strict observance of all rituals, while at the Jagannath Temple at OUAT Colony in the Unit-VIII area, people celebrated the festival with much excitement as this year marks their golden jubilee. Managing trustee of the temple Ajit Kumar Kar said, “Though we use only one chariot, we try to incorporate all the elements from the three chariots of the Ratha Jatra in Puri.” Followers at the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) temple at Nayapalli also celebrated the car festival in a big way with the three chariots being pulled by devotees from the temple front to ‘Mausima Temple’ in Unit-VIII.
ARINDAM GANGULY, OP
