Chariots to pull in floodlight during return car festival

Puri, Jun 26 (UNI) The three chariots carrying the presiding deities of Jagannath temple on the return car festival day will be pulled under floodlights if they did not reach lions gate before the sun set.

As the Bahuda (return car festival) falls on July 12 and the Sunavesh was scheduled for July 13, as per the temple almanac it became necessary to get the three chariots to its right place to facilitate lakhs of devotees to witness the ''Vesha''.

The temple managing body in order to sort out this problem had reached to a consensus on the pulling of chariots under floodlight till they reach the destination.

Huge mobile light arrangements would be made to illuminate the venue of the fete and the three-km-long Grand Road.

All the servitors bodies operating in the temple had agreed to the proposal.

The temple administration had initiated steps to advance the ritual and nitee schedules for timely completion of the Bahuda Yatra.

Every year over one million devotees thronged to the city to witness the''sunavesh'( Golden attire) of the lord Jagannath, his elder brother Balabhadra and sister Devi Subhadra atop their respective chariots.

The temple body also examined the lapses during the ''Snan yatra (bathing ceremony ) of the deities on receipt of complaints that the servitors, police and VVIPs had obstructed the devotees to have darshan of the deities.

The manging body members viewed the video footage of the snan yatra and expressed grave concern over the issue. It was observed the deities were covered by the servitors, police personnel and the VVIPs for a long time.

The managing Committee of the Jagannath temple decided to take necessary steps to prevent such type of activites.

Puri Gajapati Divyasingh Dev presided over the meeting, while almost all the members and temple officials participated.

UNI XC-DP SJC DB1928