New Delhi: On a pleasant and cloudy day, around 50,000 devotees took part in the 44th Rath Yatra Festival at the main Jagannath Temple of the National capital region at Hauz Khas on Friday.
There was great excitement and enthusiasm among devotees from the early hours of morning as Rath Yatra was being celebrated offline after two years of COVID-induced interruptions.
The four deities were taken in Pahandi procession to the colourfully decorated 25-feet high chariot stationed at Grand Road in front of the temple around 11.30 am.
Neelachala Seva Sangha secretary Rabindra Nath Pradhan, a renowned philanthropist. conducted the traditional service of sweeping on the chariots — ‘Chherapahanra’ – amid recital of hymns, chanting of slogans like Haribol and Jai Jagannath, sounding of Huluhuli, blowing of conch and playing of musical instruments like Ghanta, Kartala, Mardala, Jhanja and Mrudanga by the devotees,
The chariot-pulling started at around 2.45 pm.
The Royal Chariot, with the four deities on board, was pulled along Shri Aurobindo Marg for 2.5 km to Ansari Nagar, and then taken back to the temple premises in the evening.
Devotees gathered on both sides of the road for a holy darshan of the Lord of the Universe. The deities remained on the chariot for public viewing till night before all four deities were taken to the makeshift aunt’s house at the basement of the temple.
Among the distinguished guests who attended the festival were Vice-Chairman of NDMC Satish Upadhyay and MLA Somnath Bharati.
Laxmi Narayan Bebarta and Dr Sarojini Pani did the live narration of Rath Yatra.
The mega event was managed by the managing committee members including secretary Rabindra Nath Pradhan, Abhaya Pradhan, Ashok Pradhan (A), Khirod Patra, Gajendra Samanta, Abhiram Sutar, Ashok Pradhan (B), Jitendra Mohapatra, Ajay Pradhan, Pankaj Mohanty, Nishidha Kumar Das, Rankanidhi Sahoo, Ram Chandra Das, Bijay Sahoo, Bighneshwar Rout, Dillip Kumar Swain, Kishore Samal, Amulya Ojha, Sukanta Sahu and temple manager Rashmiranjan Behera.
The managing body of the temple ensured that all devotees wore masks.
