JEYPORE/KORAPUT: Braving rain, thousands of devotees from the district besides, neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, thronged Sabara Srikhetra at Koraput to pull the chariot of the Trinity. Early in the morning, the deities were taken for a holy bath by temple priests and a special ritual was conducted prior to the ‘Pahandi’.
Later, amidst beating of drums and chanting of ‘mantras’, the deities were taken out in a procession towards the chariot. As per the age-old tradition, a tribal villager Dasia Nayak of Kumbha village was crowned king for the day and he performed the ‘chhera pahanra’.
Wearing their traditional head gears and costumes, people of Bhumiya, Kondh, Botra, Amantya, Paioko, Parja, Soura, Gadva, Bonda and Darua tribes took part in pulling the chariots to the Gundicha temple. Koraput Collector K S Chakrabarti felicitated several village heads for their service to the Jagannath temple throughout the year.