By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI:45th Rath Yatra Festival celebrated at the main Jagannath Temple of the National capital region at Hauz Khas Village in New Delhi amidst much fanfare and spiritual fervour. Commencing from the wee hours of the day all the religious rituals have been observed in a pious and solemn atmosphere. Here Mangala Arati was performed at 5.00 a.m. President Draupadi Murmu alongwith her daughter Itishree and family members visited the temple at around 6.30 a.m. and had a holy view of Lord Jagannath. Special worship was conducted before the Trinity in view of her 65th Birthday today. She was received by the Secretary of the temple Management Committee, Sree Neelachala Seva sangha Ravindra Nath Pradhan.
Unusual enthusiasms and unprecedented excitements were witnessed among the 40,000 strong Odia and non Odia devotees gathered here alongwith their family members from Delhi and nearby areas to take part in the Grand Ceremony. The Temple Management Committee did special arrangements to manage the crowd and to maintain law and order during the occasion. Around 12.30 p.m. in the afternoon the Four Deities were taken in Pahandi procession to the 20 ft. high colourfully decorated chariot stationed at the Grand Road in front of the temple with the recitals of hymns, roaring of slogans like Haribol and Jai Jagannath, sounding of Huluhuli, blowing of conch and playing of musical instruments such as Ghanta, Kartala, Mardala, Jhanja and Mrudanga by the devotees. Chief Guest Lt. Governor of Delhi Hon’ble Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena undertook the traditional service of sweeping in front of the Chariot called ‘Chherapahanra’ at around 12.45 p.m. Guest of Honour Vice – Chairman of Delhi Development Authority Shri Subhasish Panda sprayed Chandan and Karpur on the route of Chherapahanra. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s wife Mridula Pradhan was present during the occasion.
Around 2.30 p.m. in afternoon the chariot pulling commenced. The Royal Chariot carrying the Four Deities on board was pulled from Hauz Khas Village Road till 2.5 K.M. away to Ansari Nagar via Shri Aurobindo Marg and then taken back to temple premises in the evening. The scenes of long lining up of devotees in both sides of the Car Festival route to have an auspicious glimpse of the Lord of the Universe, throwing of flowers towards Idols bystanders and breaking of coconuts in the sidewall of Chariot were just memorable and mesmerising.
Then the Deities remained on the chariot parked infront of the Temple for public viewing till night. In the late night all the four deities were taken in a procession to the makeshift aunt house at the basement of the temple. The Idols will be worshipped at the podium in the Aunt’s House till the Bahuda Yatra on 28th June 2023 as per the information of Temple sources.
Laxmi Narayan Bebarta, Sujata Tripathy and Prof. Bhagirath Jha did the live narration of the Mega Event. Saroj Panigrahi co –ordinated the Media Coverage.
The entire arrangements were smoothly executed and well managed by the office bearers and members of Temple Managing Committee, which include President Bighneshwar Rout, Secretary Ravindra Nath Pradhan, Abhaya Pradhan, Ashok Pradhan (A), Khirod Patra, Gajendra Samanta, Abhiram Sutar, Ashok Pradhan (B), Jitendra Mohapatra, Ajay Pradhan, Pankaj Mohanty, Nishidha Kumar Das, Rankanidhi Sahoo, Bijay Sahoo, Dillip Kumar Swain, Kishore Samal, Amulya Ojha, Sukanta Sahu, Manager of the Temple Rashmiranjan Behera, Assistant Managers Sashikanta Sahoo and Sanjiv Jena and Preists Sanatan Padhi, Debabrata Mishra, Jagabandhu Dash, Premananda Satpathy, Santosh Panda and Prashant Dash.
