JAGANNATH RATH YATRA OF PURI --FESTIVALS

Siraj Mohammed

The wooden temples on wheels are getting ready for Rath Yatra, the biggest
colourful festival at Puri to be held on July 12. Millions of devotees, since time
immemorial, have been flocking to this place to participate in the spectacular
Yatra, known as the Car Festival.

The festival is an eternal celebration of the divine values of love, compassion and of
equality and fraternity. The concept of a benevolent God descending from His
eternal abode- The Ratna Singhasan - down to the public avenue to share the joys
and suffering, trails and tribulations of the common folk - irrespective of caste,
creed and religion- is indeed uncommon and amazing in the history of religious
thought.

The deities in the form of colossal wooden statues adorned with floral crowns
called tahais, are literally pushed, pulled, coaxed, cajoled, hugged and even
abused but carried with remarkable veneration and love in rhythmic movement to
the accompaniment of the beat of cymbals, drums and chanting of their names in
chorus, in frenzied ecstasy.

The colourful part of the festival is when the three deities- Lord Jagannath, Lord
Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra- are brought from the sanctum sanctorum of the
12th century Shree Mandir –the Jagannath Temple in a spectacular procession
called "pahandi". The pahandi of Lord Jagannath is marked by weird frenzy of
surging masses of pilgrims who pounce upon Him to have an embrace or at least
to have a touch of Him. At least once in a year Lord Jagannath is accessible to
all.

Soon after all the deities are seated in their respective chariots surmounted by
decorated pavilions, starts the Chhera Pahanra, the ritual of sweeping of the
chariots with a golden broom by the Gajapati King of Puri, the foremost servant of
Lord Jagannath.

The most exciting part of the festival is the pulling of the chariots and it begins as
soon as the Cheera Pahanra is over. The assembled devotees jostle each other to
pull the Rath of Lord Jagannath , literally the lord of universe and fulfill their lifetime
dream.

The chariots after rolling on a few yards grind to a halt and the dahuka or the
charioteers start singing titillating songs in a hoarse voice. This is a unique aspect
of the journey that unless the charioteers sing bawdy songs, the chariots would
not move. Amidst such practice the chariots again roll on the Bada Danda - the
grand road leading to Shree Gundicha Temple - popularly known as or ‘Mausima
Temple’ (maternal auntie’s place) -the destination of the deities.

After reaching the Gundicha Temple the deities rest for a night on their respective
chariots adorned with ‘Dasaavatara’ costumes. They enter the temple next
morning in the usual pahandi style and stay there for seven days.

Goddess Laxmi - wife of Lord Jaganath- who naturally gets angry for being left out
at the Shree Mandir or the Jagannath Temple, proceeds to the Gundicha temple
to meet her Lord Jagannath on Hera Panchami, the 5th day of the Rath Yatra.
After stealing a look at her Lord, she returns to the temple, damaging a part of the
Jagannath’s chariot in anger and disgust.

Following the seven-day sojourn at the garden house, the deities embark on a
return journey known as the ‘Bahuda Yatra’. On His way back, Lord Jagannath
stops for a while at Ardhasini Temple to accept His favourite rice cake called
‘poda pitha’.

The deities after reaching at the Lion’s Gate of the temple again remain seated on
their chariots. On the next day, before their entrance in to the sanctum sanctorum
of the Shree Mandir, they are dressed in costumes of glittering gold ornaments
known as ‘Suna Vesha’.

In the spell of festivities, Lord Jagannath forgets the solemn promise of returning
on the sixth day, which he had given to His consort Laxmi. Having gone back on
the promise He alongwith His elder brother, Balabhadra and younger sister,
Subhadra, pay a price. On reaching the Lions’ Gate they find the temple doors
slammed. Like a human being here, He gets into a verbal duel- a lively repartee
that engages the divine couple for about half an hour. Then follows the
reconciliation . All the three deties then enter into the Shree Mandir adorn their
Simhasans- thus and bringing the nine-day festival to an end.

The antiquity of the Rath Yatra has been traced to the Puranic times. There are
references to the Rath Yatra in the Bramha Purana, Padma Purana, Skanda
Purana and the Kapila Samhita. Many scholars have seen in it links with
Buddhism and Jainism. But more than anything else it is an occasion for the Lord
to be in His true "Ganadevata" form. Jagannath transcends all section of beliefs
symbolising secularism. He is truly a god of the masses. During the car festival,
He mingles with the masses and is even physically embraced by all irrespective of
any distinction. The oneness of God with the devotees is the core of Jagannath
cult.

Lord Jagannath, the very source of existance for the Hindus in general and the
Oriyas in particular, is never a sectarian deity. Beginning as a tribal god, He has in
course of time become a part of the Aryan culture and has been held in high
veneration by the Buddhists, the Jains, the Saivites, the Saktas, the Vaishnavites,
the Ganapatyas and even by the Sikhs and the Muslims. Where else one can find
a Hindu deity having a Muslim disciple- ‘Bhakta’ Salabega as one of His greatest
devotees? People offer prayers by chanting Salabega’s devotional poetry. And
those pilgrims who fail to enter into the Temple still remember another ‘Bhakta’
Dasia Bauri from one of the lowest castes. According to scriptures, Dasia
Bauri,who was denied entry into the temple, stood before the Lions Gate holding a
coconut, closed his eyes , uttered ‘Hey Jagannath’. The Lord listened to his
prayers .Dasia Bauri found himself empty-handed. God had accepted the offering,
he is said to have exclaimed.

The Jagannath culture is a unique unifying system that assimilated and
incorporated in its fold the influences of divergent religious creeds and sects.
Jagannath is the fountainhead of a consciousness, which cannot be confined
within the limits of any traditional theological order. This consciousness is truly
ineffable and despite decades of research and scholarly probing the origin and
growth of Lord Jagannath is an enigma even today.

Lord Jagannath, the amazing god in the Hindu pantheon is sometimes dressed in
sarees with nose rings like a woman. The conceptual identification of Kali and
Krishna find physical manifestation in Him. It distinguishes Him from all other
Hindu deities. The ceremony of "Navakalevar", meaning new body, where the Lord
changes into new bodies once in twelve years, is also nowhere else observed in
the Hindu way of life.

The most unique feature of the Jagannath cult is the total humanisation of the
deity. Jagannath is the supreme Lord. Yet, He, like all human beings, eats,
sleeps, makes merry, falls ill, and goes on colourful cruises and expeditions. He
lives like a temporal being with all the trappings of royalty. Tradition attributing
human habits to the Lord is no where more evidenced than during the Rath Yatra,
the most splendid of all the celebrations that are observed round the year in the
holy town of Puri.

Though the car festival falls in June-July every year, the whole cycle of this ritual is
spread over the summer and monsoon months. The Hindu new year beginning in
mid- April is the time for ‘Chandan yatra’, the 21-day sandalwood festival. The
moving images of Jagannath and His siblings Balabhadra and Subhadra are
bathed in fragrant sandalwood- scented water and then taken for a boat ride during
this period. The beginning of this festival on the auspicious ‘Akshya Tritiya’-the
18th day of Baisakh month- too marks the commencement of construction of the
chariots by a specialist team of carpenters which is hereditarily engaged in this
job.

Preparations for the royal journey are indeed a herculean task though the deities
cover barely a distance of three km on the Grand Road. Everything is, however,
predetermined for this festival.

Soon after the Chandan yatra, again it is the time for ‘Snana Yatra", the bathing
festival. The deities during this period are taken to a raised platform inside the
temple complex and given a ritual bath of 108 pitchers of water. As a result, the
Lord catches cold and is afflicted with fever. This ailment of the deities obliges
them to remain in confinement in the sanctum sanctorum for 15 days. During this
period they are kept on a diet of fruit and very few of His attendants are allowed to
see Him. The ceremony is called ‘Anasara’ and shows the Lord in an intimately
human character. Such humanistic behaviour is strange for a god and is nowhere
observed in any Vaisnavite temple.

No sooner do the deities recover from their sickness than they set out on the
journey called Rath Yatra. Over the years this Jagannath Rath Yatra has been
observed at several places across the country and abroad.

" Puri is to India what Jerusalem was to the whole land of Israel. It is the Holy
Land of the Hindus. As the Israelites took up the worship at Mount Zion, so do the
inhabitants of the various parts of India go on pilgrimage to the great temple of
Jagannath," a noted scholar, David B Smith, wrote in his report on Pilgrimage to
Juggernath in 1968. keralamonitor.com July 10, 2002.