Braving sultry climate, thousands of devotees on Sunday observed the Rath Yatra at several places of this Millennium city. The festival at the Chandinichowk Jagannath temple and Patitapaban temple at Dolamundai drew maximum devotees.
The Rath Yatra was also performed at Mahanadi Vihar, Shankarpur and Raghunathjew temple at Telenga Bazaar.
The chariot of Goddess Subhadra at Dolamundai was pulled only by women. Although this has been a practice at some other places in the State, the Dolamundai ritual is unique for the fact that all the women devotees who pull the Darpadalan chariot wear the sacred yellow sarees. The other rituals at Dolamundai are performed in accordance to the suggestions made by the Puri Shreemandir.
On this occasion, spiritual and literary organisation Neelashaila thought it appropriate to launch its latest creation Jati Nandighosha in the premises of the Dolamundai temple which was released by district Collector Girish SN.
The Rath Yatra at Chandinichowk is being observed with minor changes for last two years after the district administration pulled down its Gundicha temple at Belle View as it was constructed unauthorisedly on Government land.
like previous year, the district administration this time too allowed the temple trust to set up a temporary Gundicha temple at a nearby place to hold the festival.
