Odisha: 12-day Rath Yatra concludes as deities return to Srimandir in Niladri Bije
With the completion of the Niladri Bije ritual, the twelve-day-long annual sojourn of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra came to an end on Saturday.
After two years, due to the pandemic the divine journey of lord Jagannath, which started around 626 years back in Mahesh Serampore, once again resumed its journey.
Elaborate measures were taken by the police and civic administration to conduct the Rath Yatra, free of any incident.
Dhrubananda Bramachari, some 626 years back had a vision of lord Jagannath asking him to carve out the images of the lord, Balaram and Subhadra out of neem tree trunk, sent by him on the banks of river Ganges at Mahesh, also known as Jagannath Ghat. In due time, the deities found their place in a magnificent temple in Mahesh, well known as Mahesh Jagannath temple.
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From time immemorial as per the scriptures, the trio of divine deities are bathed in holy Ganges water and pure milk (Sanan Yatra). After the holy bath, the lord is known to have fever and is treated by the vedic doctors of Arambagh, Dhanekhali. The lord recovers from fever two day short of a fortnight, and expresses his desire to visit his aunt’s place (mashir bari) together with Balaram and Subhadra. The divine journey of lord Jagannath to mashir bari is known as Rath Yatra.
The Mahesh Serampore Rath Yatra follows a similar tradition of Puri temple in Odisha.
Legend has it that Sri Ramakrishna Paramansha, Sri Chaitanya Maha Prabhu, Saradha Devi and other holy persons visited Mahesh on the occasion of Rath Yatra to have the divine blessing of lord Jagannath.
The initial chariot was carved out of wood but with passage of time, an iron chariot was constructed by the Martin Burn Company at the special initiative of Krishna Chandra Basu, the then the Hooghly district dewan, under the East India Company and a resident of Shyambazar.
The iron chariot for Subhadra, Balaram and lord Jagannath weighs 125 tonnes with height of 50 ft, 12 giant iron wheels rolls the chariot to a distance of 1 km, along the GT Road from Mahesh to his aunt’s home pulled by two parallel thick ropes by hundreds of devotees.
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