KOLKATA, INDIA, July 2, 2011: Expectations are high in India for millions of devotees of Lord Jagannath. This Sunday the entire nation gets involved in dragging Lord Jagannath’s rath (chariot) symbolizing the journey of the Deity from his temple to the garden palace in the countryside. Three beautifully decorated chariots which resemble temple structures are pulled through the streets of Puri.
It is in Puri (Orissa) where the epicentre of the festival lies, with thousands of people flocking the road to drag the lord’s chariot from his temple to Gundicha mata’s temple through his aunt’s home (Mausi Maa Temple which is near Balagandi Chaka in Puri). Jagannath is accompanied by his brother Balarama, and their sister Subhadra in this journey.
The chariots are newly constructed every year with wood of specified trees and are decorated as per a unique system that has been prescribed and followed for centuries. The chariots are covered with bright and beautiful canopies and are then lined across the wide avenue in front of the beautiful temple, close to its eastern entrance, which is also known as the ‘Sinhadwara’ or the Lion’s Gate.
Lord Jagannatha’s chariot is forty-five feet high and forty-five feet square at the wheel level. The Chariot of Lord Balarama is called ‘Taladhwaja’. The forty-four feet high chariot has 14 wheels, each of them is seven-foot in diameter. The Chariot of Subhadra is known as ‘Dwarpadalana’ and is 43-foot high.
Rath Yatra or the Chariot dragging festival is followed in every city in India. It is also quite popular outside India with chariots being dragged in cities like Dublin, Belfast, Birmingham, London, Bath, Budapest, Melbourne, Montreal, Paris, New York, Singapore, Toronto, Antwerp, Kuala Lumpur and Venice.