A quiet homecoming for the deities

Bhubaneswar: Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra concluded their nine-day sojourn at Gundicha Temple, their birthplace, to return home on the occasion of Bahuda Yatra on Wednesday. Unlike previous years, when devotees would bid a tearful farewell to the deities during the ‘return car festival’, this year’s Bahuda Yatra was attended only by police, servitors and government officials.
The state government followed its Rath Yatra protocol and imposed curfew in Puri to prevent the congregation of devotees on Bahuda Yatra. This was in compliance with the Supreme Court’s order on June 22.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik said all arrangements were done by the state government for smooth conduct of Bahuda Yatra. “Keeping in mind the pandemic, servitors had undergone Covid-19 test,” the chief minister’s office tweeted.
The Jagannath Temple administration said all rituals were completed well ahead of schedule and the three chariots reached their destination by 4.35 pm. While the rituals started at 4 am, the pulling of the chariots began around 11.25 am.
The deities will stay inside the chariots for the next two days, and will be taken inside the Jagannath Temple on the occasion of Niladri Bije on July 4.
After the chariots reached the Jagannath Temple, the district administration relaxed curfew from 6 pm till 9 pm on Wednesday. The curfew will again be in effect from 9 pm on Wednesday to 5 am on Thursday. It will be re-imposed from 3 pm till 10 pm on Thursday.
“We are thankful to the servitors for the timely completion of the rituals. We also express gratitude to the millions of devotees, who were barred from attending Rath Yatra and Bahuda Yatra, for staying indoors and watching the festival on TV,” Puri collector Balwant Singh said.
Puri’s titular king Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb, who performed the hereditary ‘chhera pahanra’ (sweeping of the chariot decks) on Wednesday, also thanked the devotees for their cooperation.
On Thursday, the deities will sport huge quantities of gold ornaments as part of ‘Suna Besha’. Again, devotees won’t be allowed to congregate outside the temple to watch Suna Besha.
Hours before Bahuda Yatra, 12 samples taken for Covid test were found positive for the virus. However, the district administration said only those who had undergone RT-PCR test in the past one week and were found negative were engaged in Bahuda Yatra and pulling of the chariots.