THE JOY OF SALVATION
"The great spiritual
army marched its hundred, sometimes its thousand miles along the
roads, across the unbridged rivers and through pestilent jungles.
Those who took to the road had spent their strength long before
the holy city was reached," wrote W.W. Hunter, the noted
earliest historian of Orissa. Indeed, before roads and railways
were built, that is how devotees through the ages used to reach
Puri. Now the situation has changed with the road, rail and air
connectivity.
Thousands of
pilgrims have already thronged Jagannath Dham, Puri, which is
one of India’s four dhams (major holy place) to witness the splendid
festival of Rath Yatra (Car Festival) which falls on July 1, 2003.
Rath Yatra is the grand culmination of a series of celebrations
spread over the summer and monsoon months.
The whole cycle
of the Car Festival consists many a ceremony. They include bathing
festival or Snana Yatra,Anasara, Netra Utsaba, Naba Jaubana Darsana,
Pahandi or the ceremonial procession of the images, Chhera Panhara
or sweeping of the floor of the Rath (car) with a golden broom
by the king of Puri, sojourn of the deities in the Gundicha Ghara,
the Bahuda Yatra or the return journey.
The most exciting
thing of the Rath Yatra is the pulling of three chariots by thousands
of people. They lay their hands on the ropes and drag the massive
structures in frenzied ecstasy along the Bada Danda —Grand Road,
to fulfil their lifetime dream. Lord Jagannath alongwith his sister
Subhadra and brother Balbhadra embark on the journey.
The Lord, who
is rarely seen outside his inner sanctum, is easily accessible
to everyone on the streets of Puri. Deities are traditionally
decorated and massive chariots are dragged. The festival begins
with a huge fanfare of conches, trumpets, drums and cymbals and
is accompanied by dance. It is a festival unparalleled in colour,
gaiety, display of devotion and spontaneity of emotional involvement.
The three chariots move down the Grand Road in stately order,
Taladhwaj (the palm crested) of Balbhadra, leading the Devadalan
or Padmadhwaja (the lotus crested) of Subhadra and Nandighosh
or Kapidhwaja (the monkey crested) of Lord Jagannath.
The Rath Yatra
is a festival of joy that dispels sorrow and melancholy from life.
It is the divine joy out of which the universe was created. The
Lord playfully jumps over the stone-walling and romps into the
Grand Road to be cuddled and caressed by anybody and everybody.
He shares the joys and sufferings of the common folk, irrespective
of caste, creed and religion. Thus the festival gives the message
of the divine values of love, compassion, equality and fraternity.
The Pahandi or
procession of the deities is the most colourful show of the Car
Festival. First Balbhadra, next Subhadra and then comes Jagannath
in dancing steps, which is associated with the traditional beginnings
of the Odissi dance. The surging crowds pounce upon Lord Jagannath,
as their long separated kin is being reunited with them, after
long days and months of waiting. This is not merely devotion but
sometimes much beyond it.
Hunter, who must
have witnessed the Car Festival, sometime in the 1870s, has described
the scene as follows, "Music strikes up before and behind,
drums beat, cymbals clash, the priests harangue from the cars,
or shout a sort of fescinnine medley enlivened with broad allusions
and coarse gestures which are received with roars of laughter
by the crowd. And so the dense mass struggles forward by convulsive
jerks, tugging and sweating, shouting and jumping, singing and
praying and swearing."
On the way to
Gundhicha temple, only the chariot of Lord Jagannath has a brief
stopover near a temple called Mausima Mandir, the temple of the
maternal aunt, where baked cheese cakes called poda pitha are
offered only to Jagannath. The deities, after a seven-day stay
at Gundicha temple, their Garden House, begin their return journey
amidst stupendous celebrations, the Bahuda Yatra. During the Rath
Yatra festival, the Lord traverses just a three kilometre route
and returns but with this short journey a real life drama of epic
proportions is enacted.
On the 12th day,
the Lord enters the temple, but not before there is a domestic
miff between the Daitas, representing Jagannath and the temple
girls representing Goddess Lakshmi who all the while was feeling
jealous about Lord Jagannath’s journey with his sister Subhadra
and brother Balabhadra. Lakshmi gives vent to her jealousy and
anger by shutting the doors of the temple on the face of Lord
Jagannath alone. The Temple girls mimick this part of the little
domestic miff, while Daitas, being representatives of Lord Jagannath
try to pacify them in sober tongues. The songs, which used to
be sung on this occasion by both the parties were colourful and
humane. Of late, however, this colourful drama has been reduced
to a token ritual.
The Car Festival
draws devotees in large numbers, sometimes over ten lakh. The
temple of Lord Jagannath Sreemandir can be rightly termed as the
common platform where all can take the mahaprasad - the holy food.
Jagannath Dharma
is the Gana Dharma (religion of the masses) of Orissa and embodies
within itself the principles of secularism, religious tolerance,
co-existence and social equality.
As Puri and Orissa
at large get submerged in the celebration of the Ratha Yatra,
West Bengal, along with other parts of the country right from
Manipur to Gujarat and from the farthest north to Kanyakumari
in the south, also do not lag behind in celebrating the divine
journey of the Lord and his dear sister and brother – Subhadra
and Balabhadra. Mahesh in Hooghly district, Mahishadal in Midnapore
district, Jangipur also in Hooghly district, Cooch Behar and many
other places including different parts of Kolkata become festive
during the monsoon month. Mahesh draws a huge crowds and so does
Mahishadal. There are fairs everywhere and these mostly run for
days together. In some places only the journey and the return
journey, which is celebrated in course of nine days, are occasions
for big fun, merriments, trade and business besides worship. The
ISKCON Rath Yatra is a gala event on the streets of Kolkata. It
is attended by the elite strata besides the commoners and foreigners..
With burgeoming
population and shrinking space today’s children in the cities
are awkwardly placed than their counterparts some half a century
ago. In those days they would get down to the streets with their
small chariots and earthen icons in them decked with flowers and
had a really field day. But now they have to scurry their chariots
within the small passage of the flats, rarely seen by others except
their parents and relatives. Still, the Rath Yatra remains a great
festival, as it had been a couple of millennia ago in the country.
*Inputs
by Souvagya Kumar Kar, IA, PIB, Bhubaneswar and Sukhendu Bhattacharya,
IO, PIB, Kolkata.
