The chariot festival is the busiest time of the year, not only for the servitors of the temple, but also for the members of the various ancient mutts (monasteries) in the pilgrim town. Of the 400 odd mutts in the town, over a 100 offer special services during the nine-day rath yatra festival.

Govardhan mutt, Raghavdas mutt, Emar mutt, Bada Odia mutt and many others render various services and offerings during the rath yatra and also to Gundicha temple during the deities’ weeklong stay there.

The oldest of them, the Govardhan mutt, set up by Adi Shankaracharya performs the most important rituals during the nine-day festival and is also considered the final authority for the day-to-day rituals at the Jagannath temple. The mutt looks after all the rituals of the temple and offers the food or prasad to the deities during rath yatra.

The Raghavdas mutt, located in front of the south gate of the Jagannath temple, performs some of the other major services of the deities.

From offering bamboo sticks and flowers, providing gorgeous crowns of the deities known as tahia made of sola plant, to contributing the tulasi garlands to be worn by the deities on the chariots, this mutt is one of the busiest during the festival.

“We are assigned with many services for the temple throughout the year, including the decoration of the three deities for hathi besa after their bath on Debasnan Purnima. But the numerous services during the nine days of the rath yatra are considered most significant,” said Anam Chandra Dalei, executive officer of Raghavdas mutt.

Uttarparsva mutt performs the alat chamar seva and provides a silver handle of the alat, the traditional hand fan, which is used during pahandi procession of the deities when coming out of the Jagannath temple and also when being carried into the Gundicha temple.

Located in front of the Jagannath temple, the Emar mutt that has been partly demolished now since it was unsafe, offers canopy to the temple and costumes of the Lord during the festival.

Jhanjapita mutt organises a vaishnav samilani four days before the festival. “One day before the rath yatra, we wash the Gundicha temple. We also perform kirtan in front of the chariots before the deities enter into their aunt’s temple,” said Sachidanand Das, head of Jhanjapita mutt.