Jagannath Rath Yatra

About Jagannath Rath Yatra

Significance

The Rath Yatra of Puri is the chariot festival of Jagannatha, worshipped with his elder brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra in the twelfth-century temple at Puri in Odisha. Once a year the three wooden deities leave the sanctum and are drawn through the town on huge chariots to the Gundicha temple, about three kilometres away, and the festival is understood as the Lord coming out among all people, whatever their caste or creed.

The Purushottama-kshetra Mahatmya of the Skanda Purana (Vaishnava Khanda) tells how King Indradyumna founded the worship of Jagannatha at Puri, and Gundicha is remembered in temple tradition as the queen of that king, or as an aunt’s house where the deities stay. Encyclopaedia Britannica notes that the English word juggernaut derives from Jagannatha and this festival.

How and where it is observed

Puri draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, and the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration announces the festival schedule each year. Rath Yatras are held on the same day at Jagannatha temples elsewhere, notably Ahmedabad and Mahesh near Serampore in West Bengal, and ISKCON has held them in cities around the world since 1967.

Rituals

The festival begins weeks earlier: after the bathing festival of Snana Purnima the deities are kept away from view (Anasara) and return to sight just before the Yatra. On the day they are carried to the chariots in the swaying Pahandi procession: Nandighosha of Jagannatha with sixteen wheels, Taladhwaja of Balabhadra with fourteen and Darpadalana of Subhadra with twelve, built new every year. The Gajapati of Puri sweeps the chariot platforms with a gold-handled broom (Chhera Pahanra) before devotees pull the ropes along the Bada Danda. The deities stay at Gundicha for about a week and return in the Bahuda Yatra.

How the date is fixed

The Rath Yatra falls on Ashadha Shukla Dwitiya, the second day of the bright fortnight of Ashadha, the same month name in the Amanta and Purnimanta calendars. It is shown on the day on which Dwitiya prevails at sunrise (udaya tithi); if Dwitiya is present at two sunrises the first day is taken, and if it falls entirely between two sunrises, the day that contains it. The temple at Puri fixes its own ritual calendar from the Odia almanacs it follows, so the temple’s announcement is final for Puri.

Sources

• Skanda Purana, Vaishnava Khanda, Purushottama-kshetra Mahatmya (Indradyumna and the founding of the Puri worship)
• Shree Jagannath Temple Administration, Puri (official website)
• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Rathayatra
• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Jagannatha

Customs differ between regions, communities and families; this description is background, not a prescription. The date above is calculated by the rule shown on this page.