Women tug Devi Subhadra’s chariot in Baripada. Telegraph picture

Apart from its natural treasure trove and unique biodiversity hub, Similipal Biosphere Reserve, the tribal dominated district Mayurbhanj is also known for its unique car festival at the district headquarters town. The ‘extended pahandi’ and tugging of the chariot Devadalan of Devi Subhadra by a ‘women only’ crowd comes as a symbol of women empowerment that dates back to 1975.

There are two Jagannath temples in the town. While the bigger one organises the car festival with three chariots, the other temple is referred to as Banthia Jagannath (dwarf god) where the deities are smaller and only one car is used in the festival to take the trinity to Gundicha temple. The womenfolk will pull the chariot of Goddess Subhadra tomorrow.

The culturally sensitive city not only attracts crowd from the neighbouring districts, but also from other areas of bordering Jharkhand and Bengal. The density of the crowd and the size of the chariot in Baripada also stand next only to Puri.

However, what puts Baripada on the top of the chart relating to rath yatra celebrations is perhaps the association of women with the festival. While the buzz around women empowerment is catching up with the active participation of the self-help groups across the state, Baripada was there to lead the path, decades ago. During the celebration of first International Women’s Year in 1975, the district administration of Mayurbhanj had started the innovative idea to let women pull the chariot of the little sister of the two Lords — Jagannath and Balabhadra.

In India, 1975 is known as the year of Emergency. But for the car festival in Baripada, the-then district collector Bibekananda Pattanayak took the initiative to start the unique tradition in the same year.

Another uniqueness of Baripada’s rath yatra is that the entire process takes a longer period than Puri’s giving a real-time feel of a yatra or festival. While in Puri, 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 for 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 the Grand Road. On the third day, Devi Subhadra’s and Lord Jagannath’s chariot Nandighosh are taken to Gundicha temple. The same process is followed during the return sojourn or bahuda yatra.

When the chariots reach Gundicha temple, laddoos are thrown from the raths to the frenzied crowd that jostle for a grain of 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.