It is believed that at a wish of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the Vaishnava devotees initiated the tradition of the Rath Yatra in Bengal. The Mahesh Rath Yatra is considered the first such festival in Bengal, following the famed Rath Yatra in Puri, Odisha.

Over its 629-year-long history, the Mahesh Rath Yatra has been graced by many towering personalities and spiritual personalities. Among them were Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Sri Sarada Devi, the world poet Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Girish Chandra Ghosh, and many others.

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Haripada Babu, an eyewitness to these divine events, recorded a detailed account of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa’s visit to the Mahesh Rath Yatra in 1885. His writings were later published in Udbodhan Patrika.

During that period, Haripada Babu—later known as Swami Turiyananda, was a direct monastic disciple of Sri Ramakrishna and a founding member of the Ramakrishna Order. He was among the young devotees who served the Master during his final illness at Cossipore. After Sri Ramakrishna’s passing, he joined the Baranagar Math and was ordained as a sannyasi, receiving the name Swami Turiyananda.

To avoid the rush of the crowd, Sri Ramakrishna was accommodated on the second floor of a three-storey building in Mahesh, which no longer exists. From the balcony, he watched with rapt attention as the deities were ceremoniously lifted and seated atop the chariot.

Suddenly, without warning, Ramakrishna rushed downstairs to the main entrance of the building to get a closer view of the proceedings. As the Gaur Gopals prepared to pull the chariot, Ramakrishna made his way to the front, lay prone on the ground near the chariot wheels, and was overcome with intense devotion. Tears streamed from his eyes as he cried out, “Oh Lord Jagannath, you are the Lord of the universe, and I too am with you!”