Lord Jagannath's Rath Yatra begins

Ahmedabad, July 16: The annual Lord Jagannath yatra today rolled out from the 150-year-old Jagannath temple in the Jamalpur area of the city amid a thick security blanket on the auspicious day of 'Ashadi bij' Amid ears deafening slogans like Jai Ranchhod Maakhan Chor'', Mandir Maa Kaun Chhe, Raja Ranchhod Chhe'' and others by thousands of devotees, three chariots of Lord Jagannath (Krishna), his brother Lord Balrama (Balbhadra) and sister Subhadra came out from the muslim dominated Jamalpur area to mark the beginning of 130th Rath Yatra.

As per the tradition, the Rath Yatra was flagged off by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, after performing morning pooja and taking blessings from Mahant (Chief Priest) Rameshwardasji Maharaj at the temple in wee hours of the day.

'Jagannath Rath Yatra or the chariot journey of Lord Jagannatha', observed in the month of Ashadha (June-July), is a festival that celebrates the annual visit of the God to his birthplace, Dwarka. The festival has been celebrated since ancient times. According to a legend about its origin, Jagannatha is said to have expressed his desire to visit his birthplace every year for a week.

According to another legend, Subhadra wanted to visit Dwarka, her parent's home, and her brothers took her there on this day. The Yatra is a commemoration of that visit.

According to the Bhagavad Purana, it is believed that it was on this day that Krishna and Balrama went to Mathura to participate in a wrestling competition, at Kansa's invitation.

Thousands of devotees have thronged precinct of temple to have dharsan and blessing of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balram and their sister Subhadra. They also took traditional Prasad of 'fruits, moong and cucumbers.

Meanwhile, leaving nothing to chance for peaceful passed-off of Rath Yatra during its 25 km long route and maintaining law and order situation in the city, the city police and security agencies have thrown out the thickest security blanket around the Yatra and on its entire route. The old city area has almost been turned into a ''Police Line'' with deployment of around 8,000 armed policemen including BSF and Rapid Action Force (RAF) have already been deployed on the 25-kilometre yatra route passing through many Muslim dominated residential colonies.

In total, security agencies have deployed about 20,000 gun-toting policemen with strict vigil being kept from 30 watch towers and 300 rooftop points at various strategic places in the city which has witnessed bloody violence on many occasions in the past during the procession day. Beside these, for swift and quick actions hundreds of horse mounted policemen are also pushed into the service.

The police have already temporarily detained hundreds of anti-social elements to ensure that the yatra passed peacefully. The Intelligence agencies have already informed the Gujarat police that this is the election year and miscreants can spark trouble any time during the 12-hour snail-paced procession.

As per tradition the three gigantic chariots of lords are being pulled by 1,200 burly men of Khalasi community all along the route.

Besides this over 100 trucks depicting the Indian culture, 16 elephants, 30 overzealous gymnastic groups, 20 musical bands and around 2,000 'sadhus' are participating in the yatra with lakhs of devotees standing throughout the route.

As per tradition the three main chariots will pass through Jamalpur, Raikhad, Raipur Chakla, Khadiya, Kalupur, Saraspur, Prem Darwaja, Delhi Chakla, Shahpur, R C High School, Pitalia Bamba, Pankore Naka and Manek Chowk areas of old city before culminate its enroute tourage at Temple in Jamalpur area in late night.

During the whole procession route, the devotees will be given traditional 'Prasad' of by the sadhus and volunteers of the temple.

The entire rath yatra is being video-filmed from 50 places, and which being monitored by senior officers from a special control room set up at police head-quarter here to control and guide the police officers on duty in case of any emergency.

A total 55 companies of para-military forces, including BSF, is pressed into the service. Beside these, police personnel have been equipped with bullet proof jackets, night-vision binoculars and goggles for the tightest vigil on the day of rath yatra and few days before it.

UNI