BY PRASANTA KU. DASH

Puri(Odisha), July 16: The Rath Yatra or the Car Festival in Odisha’s Shrine City Puri has been a hypocenter among all festivities of eastern India, even of the world.

Beginning with a mere spiritual event relating to the ancient Shree Jagannath Temple, an artistic manifestation of Odissan art, architecture with inherent culture and its presiding deities including Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra, Subhadra and Sudarshan, the traditional celebration in the long run became a spiritual extravaganza for the people of the world. It’s for the reverence of Lord Jagannath, the fine architect of the temple and its ever-expanding acceptability for all.

On the sacred Rath Yatra,the prime annual celebration of Lord Jagannath with his siblings including God Balabhadra, known as Bada Thakur and Devi Subhadra, accompanied with their eternal & powerful weapon ‘Chakraraj Sudarshan’, come & manifest on the ‘Grand Road’ sacredly considered as the ‘Bada Danda’, altogether offboard the Shree Jagannath Temple abode, to see and interact with their devotees fulfilling their earthly sorrows & sufferings.

The Rath Yatra 2026, of the Lord Jagannath celebrated today, afloats sea of devotees amid intrinsic devotion for Lord Jagannath, their overhead and heart within that allign here at Shree Khetra Puri, along the Bada Danda with the omnipresence of Bada Dian and Bada Thakur, adorned in three majestic Raths(Chariots).

Once upon a time,a miniature royal village, Puri is now one of the greatest shrines of the world, while its temple is one of the World Heritages whereas it’s prime presiding God, Lord Jagannath is globally worshipped for his reverence. For the Lord’s reverence,spread worldwide and the grand Rath Yatra celebrated here along with tens of thousands of unaccounted regular rituals e.g daily and mothly performances.

Lord Jagannath, that literally means, the God of the Universe, is now a common deity of all to be worshipped and prayed almost everywhere in the world, including the nations in the extreme west.

The Rath Yatra, one of the grandeur festivities of the Lord Jagannath is also celebrated in corners of the world as Car Festival in accordance with the rituals, followed in the Shree Jagannath Shrine in Odisha’s Puri.

What the scriptures opine of the beginning of Rath Yatra that the Odisha History also keeps up, the Rath Yatra tradition in Puri was initiated by the Royal Families of the Puri Kingdom in a miniature way. The smaller replicas of Lord Jagannath and his siblings Lord Balabhadra & Subhadra with Chakraraja Sudarshan, the divine arm of Lord Jagannath, were being carried as a part of the celebration with a wood-made palanquin-size chariot.

Handful servitors with locals accompanied by some enthusiasts were performing the rituals and driving the chariots to the Gundicha Temple, the ancient workshop of God Biswakarma wherein it’s believed that the gods’ architect crafted the semi-finished deities out from wooden logs of Neem trees.

The ‘Grand Road’ which is as-wide as an Express Highway now, was also too narrow and was filled with sand and soil then, to see the palanquins trudge along the arduous path.

The Rath Yatra and the return Journey, the ‘Bahuda Yatra’, were traditionally performed on the sand-filled path in the pious month of Asadha.

With the beliefs gradually carried forward, the Puri Jagannath Temple became a spiritual epicenter of the world, for its reverence & geographic significance, worth appealing for worldwide tourists.

For culture-lovers and aesthetic-inclined tourists the fine artefacts of the 12th century monument and the golden beach with accessible and ridgeless bay,became a centre to roam,tour and short-stary for its helathy climate and the holy-faith dispersed in air regarding the Lord Jagannath. Apart from it, the worldclass Sun Temple at Konark, the Bali Harachandi, Maa Ramachandi, Tara Tarini Temple and the Alaranath Temple & Sakhigopal Temple, which are a few kilometers away from Puri, became a spiritual triangle for the devotees, to make a spiritual merry-go-round, at least once in a year.

Meanwhile, the instrumentation of democracy and people-centric governance took forwarding steps to develop the shrine in many ways. The goverments gradually took up the Rath Yatra and Bahuda Yatra including other prime rituals such as Snana Yatra, Naba Joubana Besha, Suna Besha, Chandana Yatra, Nabakalebara ect, to transform the holy town as a fullfledged shrine city of faith and devotion.

The government’s interventions have now made Puri a shrine city of devotion that’s emerged as a Jagannath Kshetra and a grand heritage for empowering world tourism.

Let alone the Rath Yatra or the Bahuda Yatra in Puri that see oceans of crowd in the shrine, a significant ritual beside the daily routine worships relating to the Lord Jagannath attracts tens of thousands of visitors now a days, because of the growing and reverberating reverernce of the almighty across the world irrespective of caste, creed, race & religions.

Now, Lord Jagannath & Rath Yatra over the Yugas- has been a confluence of culture, custom and divinity spread out from Odisha to the globe. Tens of thousands of Odias, living in Odisha and abroad though believe Lord Jagannath as their dear Lord over their heads & heart within, most of the people have a living faith on the people’s deity and are almost crazy and passionate to step in the shrine city of Puri, for eternal integrity.

Originating from the ancient soil of Odisha, Lord Jagannath and the holy tradition of his Rath Yatra have now spread out across the world for its universal reverence & spiritual significance. Though the lord Jagannath is considered the presiding deity in Odisha’s Puri Jagannath Temple, from before the early 13th Century as a God regionally worshipped, especially by aboriginal Odias, the conscience on the revered God is all spread out in Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Gujarat, Assam, Manipur and Tripura, among a number of nations like Indonesia, Nepal and Maritious.

Lord Jagannath is also significantly worshipped by the the Hindus in Bangladesh and elsewhere, as a pious gangetic confluence of culture, custom and divinity spread out to directions viz east, west, north and south, originatign from the ancient Odisha.

The Jagannath temple in Puri, Odisha is extremly significant in Vaishnavism, and is regarded as one of the four Dhams (pious pilgrimage points) in India.The Jagannath temple is massive, over 61 metres (200 ft) high in the Nagara architecture style of Hindu temple architecture, and one of the best surviving specimens of Kalinga architecture, namely Odisha art and architecture. It has been one of the major pilgrimage destinations for Hindus since Yugas. From this apart, people from other races are also found spontaneously attracted to Puri, famous as the Shree Jagannath Dham, at least once during their lives, to have absolute fulfillment and salvation, due to the ethics of secularism well practised in the holific ‘Shree Jagannath Cult’

Today the Bada Danda Puri carries and holds tens of thousands of devotees, pulled out from across the world, that eagerly await for a peep that's holy darshan of the deities aboard the Raths, bedecked unlike temples, getting the holy trinities at their hands.