**Bhubaneswar:** The world renowned Rath Yatra (car festival) of Lord Jagannath and His siblings has been enriched through the enchanting sand arts of two internationally-acclaimed sand artists of Odisha.
While Sudarshan Pattnaik has carved 100 sand chariots on Puri sea beach on Monday for the ensuing car festival.
Sudarshan started working on this project with his 25 students on Friday and completed on Monday afternoon. They have used about 800 bags of sand.
A giant-size overhead tent has been erected to prevent rain from damaging his work, said Pattnaik, who recently won gold medals at international championships held in Moscow and Bulgaria.
So far, Sudarshan has participated in more than 50 international sand art championships and festivals around the globe and won many prizes. His sand art is always based on social issues and current topics.
“This is a new record. The officials of the Limca Book of Records will visit Puri in a day or two to hand over documents on the record. It will be placed in the 2018 edition of the Limca Book of Records,” Padma Shri awardee Sudarshan told IANS.
Sudarshan has already registered 20 records in the Limca Book. He has been making sand art related to the Rath Yatra every year.
Sand sculpture is believed to have originated during the Rath Yatra in the 16th century by Balaram Das, a devotee of Lord Jagannath and a poet, who had been once humiliated by the temple servitors and not allowed to pull the chariots during the car festival. He then went to the beach and sculpted chariots on the sand, Sudarshan said.
It is said that his chariots moved on the beach whereas the real ones on the Bada Danda (Grand Road) remained standstill, prompting the king to apologise to Das, Pattnaik added.
Odisha Tourism and Culture Minister Ashok Chandra Panda inaugurated the sand chariots and congratulated the artists for their efforts.
Similarly, internationally-acclaimed sand artist Manas Kumar Sahu has also prepared a 3-minute-44 second-span sand animation video for the ensuing Rath Yatra.
In this animation video he has presented the popular story of Balaram Das, the renowned devotee of Lord Jagannath. For preparing this video the artist has reportedly made a continuous effort for 10 hours.
Myth goes that sand sculpture had its origin during the 16 century Rath Yatra by Balaram Das, a noted Odia poet and famous devotee of Lord Jagannath. He had been once humiliated by the Shree Mandir servitors and was not allowed to pull the chariots during the car festival.
He then went to the Puri sea beach and sculpted chariots on the sand.
It is said that his chariots moved on the beach whereas the real ones on the Bada Danda (Grand Road) of the pilgrim town remained standstill following which the then Gajapati had to apologise to Balaram Das.
