The king of Puri performs chhera pahanra

Puri, July 18: Hundreds of devotees clambered on to the chariots today even before Lord Jagannath and His siblings were escorted to them. They refused to alight in spite of requests.

This and other unforeseen circumstances delayed the rituals of bahuda yatra, or the return journey from Gundicha temple.

None of the three chariots of the divine siblings —Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra — could reach their destination, the Jagannath temple.

Lord Jagannath’s Nandighosha is stalled near Badashankha while Lord Balabhadra’s Taladhwaja could only manage to reach the Jagannath Vallabh Matha. Their sister Subhadra’s Debadalana is resting at Balagandi. Temple officials said proceedings were carried out as scheduled but the chariots could not reach the Jagannath temple due to inadvertent incidents.

“We had scheduled the pahandi (or procession of deities to the chariots) for 12noon and it was to be completed by 2pm. We stuck to that. But the rituals that followed got slightly delayed,” said temple public relations officer Laxmidhar Pujapanda.

As hundreds of devotees rushed to the chariots and clambered on to them, the temple administration and police were helpless to stop them as many of them had done so with the active support of a few servitors.

The king of Puri was only able to perform chhera pahanra (sweeping of the chariots) at 4pm. The first chariot, Taladhwaja, was finally pulled around 4.45pm.

“The rain also caused delay in carrying out the proceedings,” said Kirti Das Mohapatra, a servitor.

To ensure a trouble-free bahuda yatra, the temple administration, the servitors and the police had chalked out a plan that all devotees would be asked to alight from the chariots once the pahandi began. However, the servitors did not follow the rule. The police, too, did not take any stern action fearing a backlash.

“We could only have taken action by asking the devotees to climb down from the chariots if the temple administration had helped us distinguish the servitors from the common people,” said special director general in charge of rath yatra and bahuda yatra Sanjeev Marik.

When the situation went out of control and no one was ready to alight from the chariots, temple chief administrator Arvind Padhee asked the Jagannath temple police to forcefully evict those who were not servitors from the chariots. It took them nearly one hour to do this. Padhee said infighting between different sects of servitors had also delayed the rituals.

Sources said a few servitors encouraged the devotees to climb on to the chariots. “A few of the devotees had paid the servitors large amounts of money so that they could see the Trinity come out from the temple during pahandi bije,” said a senior police official.

The servitors, however, argued that all devotees should get an opportunity to touch the idol of Lord Jagannath. “Lord Jagannath comes out on his own to see the devotees. So, there is nothing wrong in the devotees waiting to touch the deities. However, it sometimes delays the rituals. The devotees should be disciplined,” said senior servitor Jagannath Swain Mohapatra.

There was a crowd of between five to six lakh today, said a temple official. In a chorus, devotees continuously chanted the names of the deities while gongs played in the background.

“The enthusiasm of the devotees is infectious. I am privileged to be here,” said Selina, a French tourist.

The stalled chariots will be pulled again tomorrow, early in the morning. “Pulling of chariots will resume around 6.30am. Since arrangements for suna besha will be made tomorrow, we need to ensure that the chariots reach the temple in good time,” said Pujapanda.

The tugging of chariots is expected to be completed by 9am. A crowd of 10 lakh devotees is expected tomorrow.