Annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath begins in Odisha’s Puri

The rituals leading up to the yatra included the Snana Purnima, wherein the deities were bathed with 108 pitchers of sanctified water, followed by a 15-day Anavasara period of seclusion

Updated on: Jun 27, 2025, 14:16:45 IST

By Debabrata Mohanty

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The annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath and his siblings, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra, began in Odisha’s temple town of Puri on Friday morning with the three deities embarking on their journey to the Sri Gundicha Temple for a nine-day sojourn.

The chariots of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra ahead of the Rath Yatra in Puri. (PTI)

After the rituals like mangal arati, abakash, tadap lagi, mailum, rosa homa, suryapuja, and offering of Gopal bhog to the deities, the servitors of the temple began the process of carrying the three deities from the temple to the decorated chariots placed on the Bada Danda or Grand Road. After Gajapati Dibyasingha Deb of the erstwhile Puri royal family does the ceremonial sweeping of the chariots, tens of thousands of devotees will pull chariots Nandighosa, Taladhwaja, and Darpadalan at 4pm.

The rituals leading up to the yatra included the Snana Purnima, wherein the deities were bathed with 108 pitchers of sanctified water, followed by a 15-day Anavasara period of seclusion. The Sri Gundicha Temple was cleaned and sanctified on June 26 during the Gundicha Marjana ritual for the deities’ arrival.

Over a million devotees from across India and abroad gathered along the Bada Danda to witness the journey of the deities to the Gundicha Temple, their maternal home. Each chariot, constructed annually using five types of wood and standing 45 feet tall, is completed in just 58 days. The chariots, weighing over 200 tons, will carry the deities on their three-km journey to the Gundicha Temple, where they will reside for a week before returning on July 4 during the Bahuda Yatra.

The Odisha government has deployed over 10,000 security personnel and 275 AI-powered cameras across Puri to ensure an incident-free Rath Yatra. Puri police superintendent Vinit Agrawal said that three unauthorised drones were intercepted on Friday. The Indian Railways operated 365 special trains connecting Puri to states such as West Bengal and Bihar, and the state government deployed 800 buses for the devotees.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Debabrata Mohanty
Debabrata Mohanty is a senior assistant editor of Hindustan Times who works as state correspondent from Odisha covering the state's politics, governance, public policy, natural disasters, environment and its society for close to three decades. With his long years of reporting from the state capital of Bhubaneswar, Mohanty has been known as one of the most experienced and credible journalists covering Odisha for the national English dailies. His reporting combines on-ground detail with deep institutional knowledge detailing the state's changing politics, governance issues, administrative reforms and the functioning of its public institutions. He has regularly reported on issues ranging from legislative developments and public policy implementation. Politics is his core areas of expertise as he closely tracks Odisha's political landscape, including the rise and transformation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the two principal political parties in Odisha. His long association with the state's political establishment enables him to write on contemporary developments in a larger political context. Mohanty takes a deep interest in writing human interest stories, environmental issues and documenting the impact of cyclones, floods, heatwaves, and other climate-related events in one of the most disaster-prone states. His coverage extends to public health, governance reforms and stories on accountability of government institutions. Before joining Hindustan Times, Mohanty worked with The Indian Express, Mail Today, and The Telegraph, where he covered at least six general elections and as many assembly elections. In 2007, he was selected for the prestigious Chevening Young Indian Print Journalist Programme at the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom, where he received advanced training in print journalism. In 2009 he won the Press Institute of India-International Committee of Red Cross award on conflict reporting for his on-ground reportage of 2008 Kandhamal riots.Read More

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