Kolkata Rath Yatra: Carcade To Replace Chariots This Year To Avoid Crowd Gathering Amid Covid Pandemic

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKON) Kolkata has decided to forego special Rath Yatra arrangements. Rituals will be held inside the Albert Road temple premises in south Kolkata.

Image: PTI

Kolkata: In the light of the Covid-19 situation, the organising committees of two famous Rath Yatras in West Bengal have called off the festivities and chosen to keep it a low-key event within the temple grounds.

According to mythology, the deities, Jagannath and siblings Balabhadra and Subhadra Devi travel to their aunt's house (Masir Bari) during Rath Yatra, rest there for a week, and then return to the main temple on the day of Ultarath.

This is the second year that the Rath Yatra will take place on July 12 without any audience or followers. In its Golden Jubilee year, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKON) Kolkata has decided to forego special Rath Yatra arrangements.

While the deities will be brought on the symbolic yatra around the temple compound and all rites will be done, they plan to transport the idols in a car rather than a chariot to a site near Gurusaday Road, create a small pandal there, and place the deities there for the devotees.

Rituals will be held inside the Albert Road temple premises in south Kolkata.

Details of Rath Yatra program on July 12

From 11.30 am to 12 noon: Bhog sent by Chief Minister will be offered to Jagannath, Baldev and Subhadra Devi. Mamata Banerjee will not come till 15th July 2021 due to effective lockdown restrictions. Along with this, aarti will also be done on behalf of the Chief Minister.

12.30 pm: Pa Handi Vijay. The deities will ride in their chariots. Jagannath will travel by motor vehicle this time in a caravan of about 15 vehicles. There will be no procession and the journey to their destination will be completed in a few minutes.

1 pm: Cars of Kolkata Police will take the deities to another ISKCON complex which is about 4 kms from ISKCON temple. His lordship will be at ISKCON House, 22 Gurusaday Road, Kolkata-19, where he will stay till the Ultarath Yatra.

The chariots of Jagannath and siblings Balabhadra and Subhadra Devi, which are dragged by devotees along the Grand Trunk Road during the annual chariot festival, would not be taken out during the 625-year-old Mahesh Rath Yatra in Hooghly district.

Instead, rites will take place on the grounds of the permanent Jagannath Temple and a tented camp nearby.

Devotees will be allowed to have sight of the idols from a distance and in accordance with Covid-19 regulations at the tent adjacent to the temple.