Curtain Comes Down on Rath Yatra Festivities at Puri

BY: SUN STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Puri King performs chhera pahanra on chariots
[Photos by Sampradaya Sun]
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Jul 21, 2010 — JAGANNATHA PURI, ORISSA — Reverence and devotion towards Lord Jagannath took the upper hand over the searing sun and last week's ‘stampede' death during Rath Yatra, as a sea of humanity turned up to bid adieu to Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra on Bahuda Yatra (return car festival) on Wednesday.

After spending nearly a week at Gundicha temple (believed to be Lord Jagannath's aunt's place), the Deities marched towards their real abode—Jagannath Temple—by boarding Their respective wooden chariots.

The temple town erupted in joy as the idols of the triad Deities were brought out of Gundicha Temple amid a pompous ceremony called pahandi. Rhythmic beats of cymbals and gongs and the mellifluous sound of conches added music to the euphoric ambience around Gundicha Temple.

ISKCON devotees perform sankirtan during Bahuda Yatra

The Jagannath Temple administration, who claimed to have scripted a success story by completing the complex set of rituals on Rath Yatra on July 13, was also in a similar haste to complete the rituals of the Deities on Wednesday.

"Like Rath Yatra, we succeeded in starting and completing the rituals more than two hours ahead of the scheduled time. The tugging of cars started at 1:40 pm as against the scheduled time of 4 pm," said the temple's Public Relations Officer, Laxmidhar Pujapanda.

Kudos goes to the priests, the shrine official maintained. "The priests stuck to the schedule and completed the complicated rituals in time. Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb too performed his service of sweeping the decks of chariots much before scheduled time. Pilgrims caught glimpse of Deities smoothly," Pujapanda said.

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The Deities traversed the 3-km Grand Road towards Jagannath Temple soon after Gajapati Dibyasigha Deb performed his conventional "sweeping ritual" (chhera pahanra). All the chariots reached the destination before sundown on Wednesday. As per tradition, if evening falls during the pulling of chariots, the priests usually call it a day.

"But thankfully, all the cars reached the venue before evening. Devotees can get the darshan of Deities on their chariots throughout the night," Pujapanda said. The Deities would appear before pilgrims wearing glittering gold ornaments on the occasion of suna besha on Thursday.

Sources said the ropes of the chariots of Jagannath and Balabhadra reportedly snagged at some places during the pulling of cars. A few pilgrims reportedly sustained injuries when the ropes got unfastened from the chariots. But police officials refused to accept the allegation. "We did not receive any such complaint. The chariot pulling was smooth-sailing," said Puri SP, Sanjay Kumar.

Unlike the Rath Yatra on July 13th, at which a 62-year-old woman was allegedly trampled to death amid the milling crowd, no untoward incident occurred on Wednesday, police said. "Bahuda Yatra was absolutely incident-free. We were alert to meet any exigency," Kumar told.

But alertness of police came under the scanner when hordes of vendors were seen selling diyas (earthen lamps) in precarious condition amid the crowd. "Flames of diyas could have triggered chaos and subsequent disaster amid the rush of pilgrims," Chinmay Patra, a pilgrim said.

There was, meanwhile, some kind of scuffle between some pilgrims and officials of Rapid Action Force (RAF) behind the stationary chariots. Pilgrims alleged that the RAF personnel pushed old men and women violently to control the crowd. Rattled by the ‘highhanded' attitude of RAF, some pilgrims and media persons complained about the matter to higher police officials of Orissa.

"We did not misbehave with anyone. We just tried to control the crowd, who wanted to overpower us," said an RAF official.

Devotees pull chariots during Bahuda Yatra
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Meanwhile, according to most recent reports, there was no casualty reported in hospital on Wednesday. "We received nearly twenty-five pilgrims who fainted due to exhaustion and dehydration. But all of them were released after first aid treatment. No pilgrim in serious condition arrived at the hospital today," said Narahari Maharana, Chief District Medical Officer of Puri district headquarter hospital.

On the other hand, nearly twenty-seven pilgrims sustained injuries, five of them critical, when a Puri-bound passenger bus they were travelling in turned turtle at Mangalpur along the Puri-Bhubaneswar national highway, on Wednesday. "The driver of the bus lost control and the vehicle skidded off the highway. The injured were rushed to Mangalpur hospital. The five critical cases were referred to a Bhubaneswar hospital," said a police official.