Rath Jatra

Every Hindu temple in Indian Cities observes a Car festival in which the Principal deity of the temple is taken in procession in the Streets of the City, which devotees pull by hand as a process of devotion to God and prayers are offered by all from their houses coming to the front yard.

Rath Jatra is such a festival conducted at Puri of Odisha State of India, which bears some specialties.

The Rath Jatra, also called Rath Yatra, is performed with three Chariots  or Cars, one each for Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra, colorfully decorated and pulled by devotees, are drawn from the Main temple Sri Mandira  of Puri to another location around two kilometer distance, called Gundicha Mandira. This is a symbolical visit of the Lords to their Aunt Gundicha Mata’s house in a in a location called Balagandi Chaka in the same town. There the deities stay for 9 days and return to the main temple, the same way, which Yatra is called Bahuda Jatra.

It is the belief that those who have a glimpse of the Deity in Rath Jatra will not have rebirth, which is considered a blessing by Hindus.

The huge annual festival of Rath Jatra at Puri is held on Ashad Shukla Dwitiya, second phase of the brightening moon’s fortnight in Ashad month, which normally occurs during the month of July.

The festival of Rath Jatra is also referred with various other names, such as  Gundicha Jatra, NavadinaYātrā, GhosaJatra,  DasāvatāraYātrā and also few other names

History

Traditionally Jatra, which means travel, of the Deities is conducted inside the temple and also in the Streets of the City, which is normally done in a Chariot or Car, pulled by devotees. Temples have for this purpose the Deity’s icon in Brass and few other sacred metals alloyed; while there will be a Deity figure formed in Stone. The Deity Icon which travels is referred as the Touring Lord and the one in stone form is called Original Lord. The touring deity icon is called Utsava Murti in Southern temples and Chalanti Pratima or Bije Pratima in Odisha.

At Puri, Rath Jatra, there are three Deities installed Lord Jagannath, who is Lord Krishna, and Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra, His siblings.  Lord Krishna is worshipped here when he is sitting in a sacred NyagrodhaBriksha or banyan tree, which is supposed to spread through a vast area. It is believed that a devotee entering this area is well taken care of in birth and rebirth aspects.

The chariot also has a significance as one of the Vedic Scriptures called Katopanishad explains, representing body, the deity being the soul and wisdom acting as the charioteer, while a glimpse of the Lord in the Chariot gets the blessing for the onlooker against rebirth.

It is based on these principles, that the Rath Jatra of Puri has acquired such fame and involvement.

Rath Jatras in other Places

ISKCON, the organization spreading Krishna Consciousness is organizing Rath Jatras in various other places in India and abroad, the significant few of them are given below:

• Rath Jatra at Thiruvananthapuram, India.

During this Rath Jatra three chariots are newly constructed for of Balarama, Subhadra and Jagannath every year made out of wood taken from specified trees such as phassi, dhausa, etc. The logs of wood are seasoned in the river Mahanadi in Odisha and carefully transported to Thiruvananthapuram

These chariots are decorated in a prescribed manner and positioned at Bada Danda, the Grand Avenue, close to the temple entrance called Simhadwara.  The raths are named Nandighosa Rath, Talathwaja Rath and Pathmadhwaja Rath representing the three Lords and drawn by devotees in the traditional manner on the Rath Jatra day.

• International Ratha Yatra

The Ratha Yatra festival has been introduced in many major cities of the globe since 1968 through the ISKCON movement. The Rath Jatra festival is  now organized on an annual basis  in about  100 plus cities which include  Lagos Nigeria [Dublin]], Birmingham, Belfast,  London, Budapest, Bath, Melbourne, Paris, Montreal,  New York, Toronto, , Singapore,  Antwerp,  Venice and Kuala Lumpur. The Rathajatra in Dhamrai, which is the Rath Jatra in Bangladesh, is one worth mentioning here.

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