PURI: The Grand Road reverberated with love and devotion as Lord Jagannath along with his siblings embarked on a nine-day annual sojourn amid tight security and enforcement of Covid protocols but sans devotees on the occasion of the world famous Rath Yatra on Monday.
The festival process began at 4.30 am with priests performing Mangal arati followed by Mailum, Tadap lagi and Abakash and then Khichdi bhog was offered before the deities were escorted to their respective chariots in Pahandi (ceremonial procession).
Simultaneously at Simhadwar, temple priests performed homa and consecrated the three chariots after Kanakmundis were fixed atop the Raths. Earlier Daita servitors worked overnight to fix Chhenapatta (body armour) to deities to minimise the stress during the Pahandi.
At about 7 am, Daita servitors conducted Pahandi of Lord Balabhadra followed by Goddess Subhadra and then Lord Jagannath. Apart from the Trinity, Madanmohan, Ramakrushna and Sudarshan were also escorted to chariots. The Pahandi was completed by 9.30 am.
Thereafter, the Sankaracharya of Gobardhan peeth Swamy Neeschalananda Saraswati along with his disciples climbed onto the Raths and offered prayers.
Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb came in a decorated palanquin from his palace, performed arati, bandapana, rajnitee, sprinkled holy water on the Raths, performed Chherapahanra (sweeping on the deck of Raths around the deities with a broom) and offered prayers.
The pulling of chariots began after servitors fixed Sarathis (charioteers), wooden horses and ropes. Taladhwaj, the chariot of Lord Balabhadra, started rolling at 12.05 pm, three hours ahead of schedule. Pulling was to begin by 3 pm.
Though Met officials predicted rains on Monday, the sky was clear with bright sunshine. Fire department officials worked hard to spray water on the chariot pullers to beat the scorching heat and keep the Grand Road environment pleasant.
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The Trinity -- Lord Balabhadra, Goddess Subhadra and Lord Jagannath -- comes out of the temple to give a darshan to their devotees on the auspicious Ashadha sukla dwitiya every year. They are brought in three separate chariots to their Janma Bedi (birth place) Gundicha temple.
As per the standard operating procedure (SOP) issued by the state government, the festival is being organised in adherence to Covid protocols and sans devotees for the second consecutive year.
Over 4000 RT-PCR tests were conducted on servitors, temple officials, police and scribes. People with Covid negative reports were allowed to participate in the grand event.
Around 500 servitors were allowed to pull the chariots maintaining social distancing and wearing masks following the directives of the Supreme Court. The temple administration has made 20 first aid centres operational along the 3 km stretch of Badadanda.
As many as 65 platoons of police have been deployed for the smooth conduct of the annual festival while a 24-hour curfew has been imposed in the town. All the roads linking Puri and internal roads connected with Grand Road have been sealed. Security personnel were keeping a close vigil from the rooftops of buildings located alongside the Grand Road.