After remaining in anasar gruha for a fortnight, the three deities of Tulashi Khetra on Tuesday gave their naba jaubana darshan to hundreds of devotees on the occasion of Netra Utsav.
To observe the festivities at the Baladevjew temple, the sevayats performed the rites and rituals on early morning of Tuesday. Meanwhile, preparations were in full swing for the Rath Yatra on Wednesday. The Moharana, Rangaraj and Darjee sevayats were busy in giving final touches to the construction of the Brahma Taladhwaja chariot.
According to Raghunath Moharana, though all the rituals and rites observed in the Baladevjew temple at are similar to Puri’s Shreekhetra, the only difference in Puri is while the deities ride three chariots at Puri, here the three deities ride in a single chariot during their nine-day-long annual sojourn to the Mausima temple.
Almost all the chariot construction work had been completed. The chariot throne work and neta will be fixed atop of the chariot on Tuesday evening. “We will hand over the chariot to the endowment after organizing purification ceremony and worship of chariot on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday morning, the Darjee Moharana will decorate the chariot with clothes,” stated Raghunath Moharana.
According to Balabhadra Patri, executive officer of Baladevjew temple endowment, it has been scheduled to complete the manglarati, nitisnana ,abakash, ballav manohi and khechudi dhupa of the deities before 10 am on Wednesday. later, senapati lagi would be organised between 11 am to 12 pm and the pahandi bije of three deities to chariot would start after 2 pm.
The Brahma Taladhwaja chariot is said to be the world’s biggest chariot in height. The number of wheels used in Taladhwaja chariot is 14 where as the chariot is built with 1,214 logs. The height of the chariot is 62 feet whereas its width is 40 feet from the bottom, stated Balaram Pati, the pujapanda of the temple.
Meanwhile, the district administration has directed all the senior officials of line departments to ensure hassle-free services during car festival, informed district Collector Debaraj Senapati.
Security arrangements have been beefed up in order to avoid any untoward incidents. The police department is going to introduce one way traffic system in the township area during the car festival, said SP Nitinjeet Singh.
