WOMEN POWER: DEVOTEES PULL THE CHARIOT OF GODDESS SUBHADRA IN BARIPADA

This culturally-rich town, which draws a large number of tourists next only to Puri, has another distinct and unmatched feature.

Goddess Subhadra’s chariot Devadalana is tugged only by women here — a fact that shows how the region respects women power.

During the celebration of the first International Women’s Year in 1975, the district administration of Mayurbhanj had started the innovative concept to let women pull the chariot of the little sister of the two Lords.

“Then district collector Bibekananda Pattanayak took the initiative to start the unique tradition,” said senior citizen Amarendra Bose.

Another uniqueness of Baripada’s ‘Rath Yatra’ is that the entire process takes a longer period than the Puri yatra. In Puri, the holy city, the chariots are tugged on the same day of the “Pahandi” (carrying of the Lords from the sanctum sanctorum to the cars).

In Baripada, the deities rest there the whole evening on the “Pahandi” day. The next day, Lord Balabhadra’s chariot “Taladhwaja” is taken to the Gundicha temple and Devi Subhadra’s to the middle of Grand Road. On the third day, Devi Subhadra’s rath and Lord Jagannath’s chariot “Nandighosha” are taken to Gundicha temple. The same process is followed during the return yatra.

When the chariots reach the Gundicha temple, ladoos are thrown from the raths to the frenzied crowd that jostle for a grain of the sacred prasad. Baripada has two Jagannath temples — “Bada” Jagannath (the main temple) and “Banthia” Jagannath (dwarf Lord). But only the rath yatra of the Bada Jagannath has three large chariots like that of Puri.

LEGEND

Legend has it that Baidyanath Bhanja, the erstwhile ruler of the Bhanja dynasty of Mayurbhanj, who was a contemporary of the first Gajapati Maharaja of Puri, fell seriously ill on his way to the holy city. Lord Jagannath appeared in his dream and asked him to arrange a rath yatra’ at Baripada and build a temple for him.

After reaching Baripada, Baidyanath Bhanja regained health and ordered construction of the temple. Thus the Bada Jagannath temple was built during AD 1575-1580. Later the, “Banthia” Jagannath temple was built by Srinath Bhanja during 1863-1868.

Likewise, the “Pahandi” in both temples are also different. The deities of the main temple are taken separately while they are taken together in “Banthia” Jagannath temple.

The Gundicha temples are also different. While the Radhamohan temple is used as Gundicha temple for the main Jagannath temple, a separate house in the Sanskrit College is used as ‘Gundicha’ for ‘Banthia’ Jagannath. “Earlier, slaves supplied by sardars (village heads) used to pull the chariots. But the custom was abolished after Independence, and students, government employees and officials took up the job. After some years local residents started tugging the chariots willingly,” wrote Professor Bhagabat Prasad Lenka in his book History of Mayurbhanj.

Social activist Sashiprabha Bindhani said: “Activist Indumati Pati had also worked very hard to empower women in the district.

She also had a role in the 1975 decision by the administration in allowing the women to tug the chariot of Devi Subhadra,” she said.