State to celebrate ‘Rath Yatra’ today
| Date :04-Jul-2019 |
Staff Reporter:
RAIPUR
THOSE unable to visit Puri to witness the world famous ‘Rath Yatra’ (Chariot Festival) need not be disappointed as the festival will be celebrated in Raipur with religious fervour on Thursday. Though, the celebration won’t be as big the in Puri, the tradition and customs followed in Puri ‘Rath Yatra’ can be seen during the celebrations at Jagannath Temple in Gayatri Nagar, Raipur, Neelkantheshwar temple at Trimurti Nagar, Raipur, Sadar bazaar Chariot festival and other places of the city. ‘Rath Yatra’ also leads to emotional bonding between Chhattisgarh and Odisha.
This year, ‘Rath Yatra’ will be celebrated on July 4. After Puri, perhaps Chhattisgarh is the only State which celebrates the festival that includes three chariots of Lord Jagannath, brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra. There are still a lot of people in Chhattisgarh who cannot go Puri to see God Jagannath and such people have golden opportunity to visit ‘Rath Yatra’ at Gayatri Nagar and Trimurti Nagar in Raipur. The ‘Rath’ of Jagannath is known as ‘Nandi Ghosh’, that of Balaram is known as ‘Taaldhwaj’ and ‘Devdalan’ is the name of Subhadra’s chariot. Jagannath tours for thirteen times in a year but only four tours are out of the temple with his followers.
Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, former Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh, Leader of Opposition Dharamlal Kaushik, Home Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu, MP Sunil Soni, Mayor Pramod Dubey, MLA Kuldeep Juneja and MLA Brijmohan Agrawal are expected to attend the festival at Gayatri Nagar. Vidhan Sabha Speaker Dr Charan Das Mahant will be present during the ‘Bahuda Yatra’ on July 12. The guests will perform ‘chhera pahra’, ‘puja’ and ‘mahaprasad’ delivery and then the guests will pull the ‘rath’ to start the ‘yatra’. The ‘Rath Yatra’ will begin from Jagannnath Temple, Gayatri Nagar and culminate at Gundicha Temple on the same campus after covering main routes of some parts of the city.
Considering the huge number of people in the event, ‘mahaprasad’ will be arranged accordingly. Shri Jagannath Kalyan Samiti, Trimurthi Nagar, Raipur, will also celebrate ‘Rath Yatra’ with much fanfare on July 4. The chariot would be pulled from Shri Neelkantheshwar tem ple in Trimurti Nagar at 12.30 pm and returned to the temple after covering Lal Chowk, Patidar Bhawan, Fafadih Road, Fafadih Chowk and Guruji Chowk Paras Nagar. However, rituals would start at 9 am. Raipur North MLA Kuldeep Juneja will be present during the occasion.