Baripada: The chariots of Lord Jagannath and His siblings are ready to roll at Baripada in Mayurbhanj district after a gap of two years. The three deities have already been seated in their respective Raths after the Pahandi ritual at the Shri Shri Hari Baladev Jew Bije temple on Friday.
Baripada is known as Dwitiya Srikhsetra. Unlike Puri, Rath Yatra is a three-day affair in Baripada. Though the deities are taken out of the temple for the annual sojourn on the day Puri celebrates the festival, the Rathas get moving a day later to reach their aunt’s house (Mausi-maa Mandir-Radha Mohan Mandir at Baripada).
Rath Yatra at Baripada has been taking place continuously since the year 1575 but it was cancelled by the State Government in the year 2020 following the Supreme Court’s directive allowing Rath Yatra in the city of Puri and not anywhere else in Odisha due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
What puts Baripada on the top of the chart relating to the Rath Yatra celebration is the association of women with the festival. It was during the celebration of the First International Women’s Year in 1975 that the district administration of Mayurbhanj started the innovative idea to let women pull the chariot of Devi Subhadra, the little sister of Lord Jagannath and Balabhadra.
