KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, June 18: Utkal Association, Jamshedpur is all set to celebrate Rathyatra at the premier Odiya organisation in Sakchi on Tuesday.
Though the association’s managing committee has tried to blend the pius chariot festival in the way it is held in Puri, enthusiastic functionaries have ensured that the Rathyatra be celebrated with the same rituals which are followed in the Jagannath Dham.
The work of making a decorated wooden chariot is complete like the work wooden deities of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balbhadra and Goddess Subhadra. The work of the two pairs of wooden black and white horses has also been completed.
The drawing of the chariot will begin from the assist’s premises to move around at a four-km-long stretch in Sakchi at 2 pm on Tuesday with Lord Jagannath and his siblings aboard on its return to the symbolic Mausi Maa Temple on the association premises before the sunset.
“This is for the first time we are organising the Rathayatra on behalf of the Utkal Association. Though being organised at a small scale, the Rathayatra festival is expected to be spectacular, ” said the association’s general secretary Tarun Kumar Mohanty while talking to the media
Revealing about the chariot, Mohanty said a team of five carpenters led by Rabi Maharana from Puri has made it. The carpenters had begun the chariot making work on Akshay Tritiya and completed the work on time.
“The chariot has been made of saal wood provided by the Jamshedpur DFO, Mamta Priyadarshi on our request, ” said the general secretary.
Mohanty pointed out that RSB Group chairman, Rabindranath Behera will perform “Chhera Panhara” with a gold-studded broom, a ritual that is followed during Rathayatra in Puri, giving a message that all human beings are equal.
Earlier in the morning over 50 men and women took out a “Kalash Yatra” from the Subernarekha River to the Utkal Association for beginning the puja ritual of the Rathayatra.
