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                                                RATHA  JATRA- the festival of puri  

Ratha Jatra,the Festival of Chariots of Lord Jagannatha is celebrated every year at Puri,the temple town in Orissa.The presiding deities of the main temple,Sri Mandira,Lord Jagannatha,Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra,with the celestial wheel Sudarshana are taken out from the temple precincts in an elaborate ritual procession to their respective chariots.The huge,colourfully decorated chariots,are drawn by thousands of devotees on the bada danda,the grand avenue to the Gundicha temple. After a stay for nine days,the deities return to Srimandira. Ratha Jatra is perhaps the grandest festival on earth.Everything is on a scale befitting the great Lord.Full of spectacle,drama and colour,the festival is a typical Indian fair of huge proportions.It is also the living embodiment of the synthesis of the tribal,the folk,and the autochthonous with the classical,the elaborately formal and the sophisticated elements of the socio-cultural-religious ethos of the Indian civilization. The festival is also known as Gundicha Jatra, Ghosa Jatra,Navadina Jatra,Dasavatara Jatra and by a variety of other names.For the devoted and believers,it is considered the most auspicious occasion.A glimpse of the Vamana,the dwarf form, an incarnation of Lord Jagannatha,is sure to ensure emancipation,release from the cycle of birth and death. Ratha Jatra is an essential part of the ritual of the Hindu system of worship.Jatra literally means travel or journey.Normally.It is the representative deities of temples more popularly known as Utsava Murti in south and Chalanti Pratima or Bije Pratima in Orissa,partake in these journeys.It is rarely that the presiding deities come out of the sanctum for such ritual journeys. The Jatra for the Ritual Journey take two forms – one involving the short circumbulation around the temple and other involving a longer journey from the temple to some other destination.The Jatra is considered as an important part of festivities and ceremonies of each temple and is considered as a special and sacred occasion. Rath Jatra being unique among all Jatras is the grandest festival of the supreme divinity.He has manifested himself in the Kali Yuga to emancipate humanity and to relieve them from their sufferings.Lord Jagannatha is identified fully with Vishnu and Krishna.In his original manifestation as Nilamadhaba,he was worshipped in a sacred Nyagrodha Briksha or banyan tree.The branches of the tree had spread for several miles and any one entering this area was instantly emancipated and was relieved of the travails of the birth and re-birth.In fact,the influence of Yama,the God of Death,is supposed to have been curtailed in the sacred city of Puri-Srikshetra on account of the presence of Lord Jagannatha and therefore it is also called the Yamanika Tirtha. A glimpse of Lord Jagannatha on the chariot is considered to be very auspicious and saints.Poets and scriptures have repeatedly glorified the sanctity of this special festival. The sanctity of the festival is such that even a touch of the chariot or even the ropes with which these are pulled is considered enough to confer the results of several pious deeds or penance for ages.In fact,there is a famous Oriya song which says that on this occasion,the chariot,the wheels, the grand avenue all become one with Lord Jagannatha himself.