SAMBALPUR/ROURKELA/BHAWANIPATNA: Rath Yatra was celebrated with religious fervour across Western Odisha on Sunday. In Sambalpur district, the car festival is celebrated with pomp and gaiety since ages with at least one Jagannath temple dotting the landscape in each gram panchayat. In fact, many believe that the district houses the maximum number of Jagannath temples in the State.
Altogether, there are 220 Jagannath temples in the district, including 27 temples in Sambalpur city. Of the 27 temples, the car festival was celebrated at 25 places located in different parts of the city. Unlike in Puri where each deity has a separate chariot, all the three deities here are seated in one chariot. During Rath Yatra celebration in Sambalpur, rituals are performed as per the tradition prevalent in Jagannath Temple in Puri. However, care is taken to conduct the rituals only after their completion in Puri.
Similarly, chariots are pulled only after those in Puri roll out and hence, the journey begins usually in late in the afternoon and continues till night unlike in Puri where the chariots are not pulled after sunset. Apart from Brahmapura Temple, the oldest Jagannath temple of the district, the car festival was also celebrated in Mohantypada, Kunjelpada, Hatpada, Daleipada, Nandapada, Budharaja and Mudipada besides other areas of the city.
The city dwellers thronged the temples to witness the festival. Priest of Mudipada Jagannath temple, Byomakesh Panda, said ‘Mangala Alati’ and ‘Sakala Dhupa’ rituals were performed in the morning. The chariot was pulled in the evening only after completion of ‘Pahandi’ and ‘Maha Alati’ of the Trinity in the chariot, he added. Rath Yatra is also an important occasion for newborns. Parents take the babies to the chariot where they are made to touch the Trinity. The tradition is locally known as ‘Rath Chhuan’. It is believed that by observing this ritual, the body of the baby gets purified.
At Rourkela too, celebrations were organised on a massive scale at 50 locations within Rourkela city and over 100 areas in the district. Large number of devotees turned up at Ahiraband Jagannath temple at Sector 3 and police had to face a tough time controlling the crowd from Ring Road to Mausi Maa temple at Sector-5.
Rourkela SP Uma Shankar Dash said elaborate security arrangements were made and the festival passed off peacefully with no untoward incident reported from the Rourkela police district. In the rest of the district, the festival was observed at Rajgapur, Birmitrapur and Sundargarh towns.
In Kalahandi district, celebration was peaceful in all blocks except Mahaling village under Bhawanipatna block where chariot pulling had to be stopped midway following a tussle between sevayats and police. There is a tradition of of throwing ‘prasad’ from the chariot at devotees at Mahaling village. However, police opposed the ritual on Saturday to maintain law and order. Senior police officers rushed to the spot and pacified the sevayats.