Sambalpur: Hundreds of people today took their newborn babies to the Trinity’s chariots and made them touch the deities during car festival — a tradition that stands in stark contrast to the Puri temple authorities’ decision regarding the practice.
In 2013, Jagatguru Shankaracharya Swami Nischalananda Saraswati had made an announcement that devotees should not be allowed to touch the idols of the Trinity during car festival. Later, Puri King Gajapati Dibya Singh Deb also said that the practice of touching the idols should not be allowed, and to buttress his stance, the king referred to the pronouncement of Shankaracharya.
However, ratha chhuan (touching of chariots - devotees also touch the deities atop raths) is an important tradition in west Odisha, and stands above any such pronouncement.
It is widely believed that the child’s body gets purified by observing this ritual. It is considered to be a sacred niti (ritual) performed for the happiness and well-being of the child - irrespective of his or her caste and tribe.
“This is an age-old tradition, widespread in this part of the state. Every year, hundreds of people come with their newborns near the cars and perform the ritual. Parents bring along the baby to perform the ritual after the annaprasan, which marks an infant’s first intake of food other than milk,” said a priest of Modipara Jagannath temple, Byomakesh Panda.
“In Sambalpur, Lord Jagannath is worshiped in 27 mutts and temples. Rath yatra is celebrated in 25 shrines. One could see parents taking their newborns to the rath to observe the ritual. The ritual is also performed during bahuda yatra,” said Panda.
Unlike the tradition prevalent in Puri, where each deity has a separate rath, in Sambalpur all the three deities are seated on one chariot.
“I was waiting for rath yatra this year. We had not observed the annaprasan of my eight-month-old son. Today, we observed it by feeding him the prasad from the Jagannath temple and made him touch the deities in the afternoon,” said mother of a newborn, Surekha.
“It was a great day for me. I made my nine-month-old daughter touch the deities today,” said Bandana Pradhan, a devotee.
“Rath chhuan first started at the rath yatra of Brahmapura Temple, which is one of the oldest Jagannath shrines of this region and built between 1594 and 1620. And with the course of time, the tradition spread across west Odisha,” said author Deepak Panda.
Text by Subrat Mohanty, Telegraph picture
