Ahmedabad:

The traditional Jal-Yatra (Kalash Yatra) which is held over a fortnight before the famous Rath Yatra of historic Lord Jagannath temple here will be organized tomorrow marking the ‘symbolic’ departure of the three main deities to their Mosal (uncle’s place) after which the darshan in temple will also be closed till Netropachar puja/Netrotsav vidihi marking the symbolic return of the deities.

The 141 Rathyatra would be taken out on July 14 (Ashadi Beej day of the Gujarati calender) this year.

A colourful procession with over a dozen elephants is taken out from the temple in Jamalpur area of the city to Somnath Bhudhar na ghat of river Sabarmati where main preist Mahant Dilip Das performs Ganga-Pujan (worship of the river) ritual on a boat and then river water is filled in 108 urns and taken back to the temple for special jalabhishek (water pouring ritual) called ‘Jyeshthabhishek’.

Manant Das said that as the ritual is done on the full moon day of the Jyeshtha month, it is called jyeshthabhishek. After that the main deity lord Jagannath, his elder brother Balbhadra and sister Subhadra are decorated in a special manner to give them the form of lord Ganesha to perform Gajvesh puja.

‘From tomorrow, till 15 days the deities would deemed to have gone to Mosal (uncle’s place at Saraspur) and don’t give darshan,’ he said.
The 141 st rathyatra this year is to be held on July 14 the Ashadi beej as per Gujarati calendar.

Apart from 14 decorated elephants, 501 people with colourful flags, 51 with silver sticks and umbrella and chanvar (old time fan) are also included in the Jal Yatra procession which reaches Sommnath Bhudhar Ghat. 1008 women holding urns on their heads participate in the procession.

Notably the first ritual pertaining to Rathyatra marking the symbolic construction of 3 rath (chariots ) Known as Chandan Yatra was conducted on April 18 coinciding with Akha teej. 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).

Meanwhile security preparations for the Rahthyatra are underway. City police has installed 16 high resolution movable CCTV cameras in communally sensitive areas of Dariaypur, Kalupur and Dili Darwaza.

DeshGujarat