Source: www.sindhtoday.net
PURI, INDIA, June 24, 2009: Nearly 300,000 devotees, braving the scorching heat, gathered in Puri town of Orissa to have a glimpse of Lord Jagannath at an 11-day Rath Yatra (chariot festival) which began Wednesday.
“Despite the heat wave, nearly 300,000 devotees have already arrived. We are expecting a gathering of about a million by the evening,” public relations officer of Jagannath temple administration Laxmidhar Pujapanda told IANS.
He said the deities of Lord Jagannath, his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra would be pulled by the devotees in three gigantic chariots in Puri town that recorded a temperature of 93 degrees Tuesday. However, other parts of the state recorded temperatures of over 104 degrees.
The chariots of the three deities are pulled by the devotees with the help of ropes. The annual procession is a celebration of Jagannath’s journey from Dwarka to Kurukshetra along with Subhadra and Balabhadra some 5,000 years ago.