Puri decked up for annual RathYatra

Subject : Culture

Context : The world-famous RathYatra will be conducted without devotees in view of the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic.

Concept :

About RathYatra

RathYatra is a festival dedicated to Lord Jagannath (Lord Krishna), Goddess Subhadra (his sister) and Lord Balaram (his elder brother).
RathYatra is widely celebrated and one of the biggest festivals of India.
The term particularly refers to the annual Rathyatra in Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and other East Indian states, particularly the Odia festival.
JagannathRathYatra festival as per the traditional Oriya calendar begins on the second day of Shukla Paksha of the Hindu lunar month of Ashadha.
The nine-day-long festival marks the annual journey of Lord Jagannath, his brother Lord Balbhadra and sister Subhadra to the Gundicha temple.
RathYatra is also celebrated in Ahmedabad.
Apart from this, the Ahmedabad yatra is different from its Puri counterpart on other counts — the idols Lord Jagannath, Baldev and Subhadra are blindfolded ahead of the procession day, as part of the netrotsav ceremony, but remain open to public view.
In Puri, they are given a bath and kept out of public view till the procession.
Known as ‘Chaka dola’ (the one with the large round eyes) in Odisha, Jagannath is believed to be the Lord who watches over the world and never sleeps.
The Puriyatra to the maternal uncle’s place is also called the Gundichayatra, named after Gundichadevi, the maternal aunt of Lord Jagannath.
The siblings spend at least seven days at their aunt’s and return to the main temple in Puri in what is called the ‘bahudiyatra’ (the return journey).