The three deities in their respective chariots reached the Mausi Maa Badi at the Badadanda here in Baripada town by Saturday evening.
While Lord Balabhadra in Taladhwaj arrived his destination by Friday evening, Devi Subhadra’s chariot Darpadalan, which covered halfway distance on Friday in line with the tradition here, covered the other half to the Mausi Maa Mandir on Saturday. Lord Jagannath’s Nandighos, on the other hand, completed journey on Saturday itself.
Amidst intermittent drizzling, bhajans, kirtans, blowing of conches, ringing of bells and running commentary etc, about two lakh devotees pulled the chariots along the Badadanda. As has been the tradition here, Maa Subhadra’s Rath was pulled exclusively by women devotees.
While Subhadra’s chariot reached the Mausi Badi at about 3.15 pm, Lord Jagannath arrived at the destination at about 5.20 pm. Afterwards, Shraddha Laddus were distributed among large numbers of devotees present there.
Prominent among those who took part in this year’s famous car festival include Mayrbhanj MP Bishweswar Tudu, district Collector Vineet Bharadwaj, Baripada MLA Prakash Soren and former Odisha Assembly Deputy Speaker Sananda Marandi. The much-crowded annual colourful event passed off smoothly with no untoward incident reported from anywhere in the town. Rath Yatra was also celebrated with much gaiety in other parts across the district of Mayurbhanj.