Students pull the chariot of Jagannath at the Iskcon car festival in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Thousands of people turned out to pull the chariots of Lord Jagannath and his siblings at different places in the capital which celebrated the return journey (bahuda yatra) of the deities with traditional fervour and gaiety.

The focus was on the yatras organised by Iskcon at Nayapalli and Patia, where the local king performed chhera panhara, the ritual sweeping of the chariot decks.

Amidst the beating of cymbals, gongs and drums, accompanied by rhythmic and melodious “Hare Ram hare Krishna” chants, Iskcon devotees tugged at the ropes as people lined up on both sides of the two-kilometre route to watch the proceedings.

Though the grandeur and opulence of Puri rath yatra was missing, the spirit and fervour of the Krishna bhaktas were on par with the sevayats in the Lord’s hometown.

The chariots began rolling after Iskcon’s regional governing body head Shri Shrimata Bhaktigaurav swept the chariots with the broom. “For us, Lord Jagannath and Lord Krishna are one and same. Thus, we celebrate rath yatra with same devotion and reverence as we celebrate any Lord Krishna festival,” said Sripada Trailokyanath Das, a member of Iskcon.

Thousands of devotees gathered at Patia village and pulled the chariot of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra back to their temple even as the deafening sound of conchs, gongs and chants of “haribol” filled the air.

The Lords started their return journey around 3.30pm from the Mousima temple to their original abode after the new king of Patia, the fourth Dibya Singhdev, performed the chhera panhara. The car festival in Patia resumed last year after a gap of 78 years.

“I have come from Rangamathia to pull the chariots. It’s exciting,” said Sudarshan Badajena, who is in his sixties. The return car festival was also celebrated in 35 other places across the city with the chariots being pulled in areas like KIIT, Vani Vihar, Dumuduma, Tamando, Jagamara, Unit VI, VSS Nagar and Old Town.

Security was tight with nearly 15 platoons of police being deployed in the city. At several places, vehicular traffic had to be diverted to facilitate the homecoming of the deities.

There were also power disruptions in the city because of the festival.