Bhubaneswar, April 14: A sea of devotees braved the scorching sun to accompany the Rukuna rath as it rolled down from the 11th century Lingaraj Temple on the occasion of Ashokasthami today.

The beats of mardala and the ghantua resonated with the cheers of over one lakh devotees who turned up at Old Town to attend the annual Rukuna rath yatra, making it a prelude of sorts to the upcoming rath yatra in Puri.

The ritual of pulling the chariot to the Mausima Temple, however, began at 5.40pm after a delay of over one-and-a-half hours. As a result, the procession could only travel a short distance before it was stopped at Badheibanka Square after sunset. The rath will be pulled again from 3pm onwards tomorrow.

"Devotees can have a darshan of the Lord during this time. After a few rituals during the day, the chariot pulling will start again," said executive officer of Lingaraj Temple Trust Kelucharan Ransingh.

Despite elaborate arrangements in the past couple of years to ensure time management, the chariot pulling gets delayed.

The rituals started at 4am and people were allowed to have a darshan of the deities, called Sahan Mela, after 4.30am. After a series of ceremonies, bronze images of the three deities - Chandrasekhar (the representative of Lord Lingaraj), Rukmini and Basudeva - were installed on the 35-feet chariot after which it rolled across the city.

The Rukuna Rath is unique in that unlike the traditional rath yatra in Puri, it does not 'take a turn' during the return journey.

"After a five-day sojourn when the deities return to their abode, the chariot is pulled from behind. It is, therefore, called analeuta (a chariot that does not take a turn)," said Purna Chandra Nayak, an 83-year old resident of Old Town.

Devotees from distant places, including Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Angul and Khurda, turned up for the festival. "This festival has a charm of its own. Pulling the chariot felt like swimming in a sea of devotion," said Lokesh Kumar, a devotee from Cuttack.

There were adequate security arrangements to control the crowd as well with 15 platoons of police deployed at different places. The cops blocked the approach roads to the temple and while closed-circuit television cameras were also installed to keep a watch on the devotees. A number of temporary water kiosks were also set up.

Following tradition, water from Marichi Kund was auctioned yesterday with the first pot of water being sold for Rs 12,500.