Why Is Jagannath Rath Yatra An Important Festival?

The famous chariot festival associated with Lord Jagannath (incarnation of Lord Vishnu) is held annually in the holy city of Puri in Orissa. This is a ten day long festivity starting on the ‘Ashadha Shukla Dwitiya’ of the Hindu month, ‘Ashadha’ when the deities Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra are taken out of the temples, placed on chariots and taken to ‘Gundicha’ Temple situated at a distance of 2 km. On the way the idols are taken to ‘Mausi Maa’ temple as well, situated near ‘Balagandi Chaka’. The idols remain at the ‘Gundicha’ temple for nine days and then return back to their own temple which is called ‘Bahuda Jatra’. The chariot of Lord Jagannath is called, ‘Nandigosha’ or ‘Garuddhwaja’, the chariot of ‘Balabhadra’ is named as ‘Taladhwaja’ or ‘Langaladhwaja’ and the chariot of ‘Subhadra’ is called ‘Devadalna’ or ‘Padmadhwaja’. The goddess is accompanied by ‘Sudarshana Chakra’ or the sacred wheel.

This is the only time when Non-Hindus and tourists who are not allowed inside the temple premises can look at the idols. Devotees throng the city with the desire to pull the chariot of their most loved Lord and to seek his blessings. The procession is done on a grand scale where there are drums, trumpets and tambourines blowing. Men, women and children all join in the masses. The ‘Ratha’ carts are pulled by thousands of devotees with love and affection.

According to the folklore, Lord Vishnu appeared in the human form on earth, in the ‘Dwapar Yug’, as Krishna also called ‘Jagannath’. ‘Jagannath’ is another name of Krishna which means, the master of the world and is often worshipped as ‘The Preserver’. The Jagannath temple is dedicated to Lord Jagannath, his elder brother ‘Balabhadra’ and his younger sister, ‘Subhadra’. It is said that once, Lord Jagannath expressed his desire to visit his birthplace ‘Gundicha’ once every year and hence his subjects out of love and respect made three huge and colorful chariots and arranged for the three siblings to visit ‘Gundicha’. On the way they stopped at their Aunt’s place, now popularly called the ‘Mausi Maa’ temple where she offered Lord Jagannath’s favorite sweet dish (‘Poda Pitha’) to him, the tradition still continues. True to his promise, after that, the Lord visited ‘Gundicha’ every year and the annual visit still commemorates as the famous ‘Rath Yatra’.