The famous annual Rath Yatra festival at Jagannathpur in Ranchi will be celebrated without the participation of devotees and with the strict adherence to Covid-19 protocols for the second consecutive year in order to curb the spread of the viral disease. The Hemant Soren-led Government decided to suspend the annual cart festival this year too, after the Jharkhand High Court while hearing a PIL, directed the State Government to take appropriate decisions.
Earlier, the double bench of Jharkhand High Court of Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and Justice SN Prasad on Friday placed the ball in the court of the State Government to decide whether to allow the Rath Yatra at the Jagannath temple in Ranchi or not.
The court said it depends upon the State Government whether Rath Yatra can be allowed or not and in case the yatra is allowed guidelines of Supreme Court must be followed.
Today, as part of ritual a day before the rath yatra, priests paint the eyes of the idols at the netradaan (eye donation) ceremony. However, at the netradaan ceremony, devotees were not allowed to participate at the festival due to Covid pandemic.
Now, as the temple management committee has not received permission from the state government for holding annual cart festival, puja and other rituals will be held in a simple affair like previous year following Covid protocols. On July 12, the Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath, brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra will not go to Mausibari.
The deity will be brought outside the temple and seated. 108 times aarti of the Lord and his siblings will be performed after worship.
After the distribution of flowers and offerings, the god will be taken inside the temple again.
The nine-day Rath Yatra is marked by a procession of the chariots, in which the three deities — Lord Jagannath, Bhagwan Balaram and Devi Subhadra — embark on an annual journey to their maternal aunt’s place and back.
Last year, for the first time in over 300 years, chariots of Lord Jagannath and his siblings were not taken out of the Jagannathpur temple due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren had sought “forgiveness” from the deities for not being able to perform the annual ritual.
The Jagannathpur temple was constructed atop a hill in Ranchi’s Dhurva area in 1691 by Badkagardh Nagavanshi Raja Thakur Ani Nath Shahdeo, and the first chariot had rolled the very next year. Since then till 2019, the Rath Yatra rituals have been performed without any interruption.
Like the cart festival in Ranchi, there will be no Rath Yatra at world famous Puri. The Jagannath Temple administration last week issued a notice informing that like the previous year, this year’s Ratha Yatra festival would be organised without the participation of devotees and in strict adherence to safety protocols to contain the spread of coronavirus.