Carpenters are busy here since Akhyatrutiya to complete the chariots before Netrotsav to be held on July 5 in Dhenkanal. The head Biswakarma said that despite incessant rains, they except to complete the work in time.
Sources said the Rath Yatra was first started by the queen Gundicha in Puri. later princely States like Dhenkanal, Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar, followed suit.
In Dhenkanal, the festival, which is presently organized by the management of Balaram Temple, is believed to have started towards the end of the seventh century.
A study revealed that initially the deities from the Dhadhibaman Jew mutt were brought for the Car festival to Rathagada where the chariots were prepared by carpenters. But, due to the difference between mutt Mahanta Radha Charan Das and erstwhile ruler Raja Surapratap Mahindra Bahadoor, the Mahanta refused to give the deities further. So, the king installed the new idols of the deities in the Balaram temple and made separate arrangement for worship of lord Jagannath.
Out of the two chariots constructed here, the bigger one, which carries lord Jagannath is measured 27 hands and 17 fingers high. Decorated with multicoloured drapery, parswa devatas and images of the ten incarnations of lord Bishnu, the chariot is fitted with twelve wheels and four ropes, to be drawn from Rathagada to Gundicha mandir at Baji Chauk for a distance of one km.
The small chariot which adorns goddess Suvadra consists of eight wheels and two ropes are fitted there for dragging. The Devotar department claims that Suvadra Rath has no definite measurements. Earlier school students used to pull the small chariot. Now ladies are dragging the Rath since 2000 on the instruction of former district Collector Ranjana Chopra.
The specialty in Dhenkanal Car festival is that the deities of lord Jagannath, lord Balaram and Goddess Suvadra worshipped at the royal palace are placed in the cars along with the deities brought from Balaram temple. Although there are no historical evidence but tradition has it that the chariots of Dhenkanal is drawn first, even before Puri as lord Balaram, the elder brother of lord Jagannath, is worshipped as the presiding deity of Dhenkanal.
The Dhenkanal Devotar Department sources said the chariots will be first pulled at 1.40 pm and then once again at 2.40 pm. In Dhenkanal, the king performs the Pahandi of the deities, with chanting of Haribola and Veda and blowing of Hulahuli, Cunch and Turi. The Minaketan Dhanda, which the erstwhile king has received from the king of Khurdha, previously was carried by a royal elephant to lead the chariot. The dhanda is carried in a jeep these days.