Ahmedabad:

Chandan-Yatra, the first religious ceremony pertaining to the annual Bhagwan Jagannath Rath Yatra here to be taken out on July 14 from historic Jagannath temple in the city this year was held in the temple premises in Jamalpur today.

Temple Trustee Mahendra Jha and Mahant (the chief priest) of Dilip Das performed the Chandan Yatra Puja to mark the construction of the 3 wooden chariots used for the procession to carry the idols of lord Jagannath, brother Balbhadra and sister Subhadra. The 141st Yatra would be taken out this year.

Jha said that the ritual was first among around half a dozen held before the Rath-yatra was taken out on the auspicious day of Aakha Teej or Askhsay Tritiya. The Rath-Yatra is taken out on the Ashadi beej day.

‘In fact here in Ahmedabad we don’t construct the raths every year. The Chariots are dismantled and reconstructed with repairs etc. In the past the chariots were made up of Chandan or Sandal wood and due to it the name of the event was given as Chandan Yatra. In Jagannath Puri the chariot is made all anew every year but in Ahmedabad we re-do it by dismatning the one used last year and re-constructing it,’ he said.

After this the second event would be Jal-Yatra to be held in the the last week of June this year. Netrotsav would be another important pre-event to be held after that, Jha added.

Meanwhile the difference of time between the Chandan Yatra and Rath Yatra has increased by a month this year due to appearance of two Jyestha months of Gujarati/Hindu calendar owing to it being a year of Jyestha Adhik mas (one extra month of Jyestha).

DeshGujarat