New Delhi: 47th Rath Yatra Festival was celebrated at the Jagannath Temple in Hauz Khas Village of New Delhi amidst massive fanfare and spiritual fervour. The entire temple compound was elegantly decorated with colourful curtains, papers and lights befitting to the grand occasion. Commencing from the wee hours of the day all the religious rituals have been performed before the Deities in a solemn atmosphere. At around 1.15 p.m. in the afternoon the Four Deities were taken in Dhadi Pahandi procession to the colourfully decked up chariot stationed at the Grand Road in front of the temple. The entire atmosphere got reverberated with the recitals of hymns, roaring of slogans like Haribol and Jai Jagannath, sounding of Huluhuli, blowing of conch and playing of musical instruments such as Ghanta, Kartala, Mardala, Jhanja and Mrudanga by the devotees. Unusual interest, unexpected enthusiasm and unprecedented excitements were witnessed among the 1 lakh strong Odia and non Odia devotees gathered here alongwith their family and relatives from Delhi and National Capital region to take part in the August Ceremony. The Temple Management Committee Neelachala Seva Sangha under the stewardship of Secretary Ravindra Nath Pradhan did elaborate arrangements to maintain discipline and decorum during the occasion.
Chief Guest Chief Minister of Delhi Rekha Gupta undertook the traditional service of sweeping in front of the Chariot called ‘Chherapahanra’. Other Distinguished Dignitaries present during the occasion were MPs Bansuri Swaraj, Manoj Tiwari, MLAs Satish Upadhyaya, Anil Sharma, BJP Leaders Mridula Pradhan, Shailendra Singh Manti, Ravinder Choudhury and Former MLA Somnath Bharati. The Devotees demanded before the Guests to declare Rath Yatra Day as a Public Holiday.
The chariot pulling commenced at around 2.30 p.m. in afternoon. The 18 feet high majestic Chariot carrying the Four Deities on board was pulled from Hauz Khas Village Road till 2.5 K.M. away to Ansari Nagar via Shri Aurobindo Marg and then taken back to temple premises in the evening. The scenes of long lining up of devotees in both sides of the Yatra route to have an auspicious glimpse of the Lord of the Universe, were overwhelming. The acts of throwing of flowers towards the Idols by bystanders and breaking of coconuts in the sidewall of Chariot were just memorable and mesmerising. After returning back to the Grand Road the Deities remained on the chariot for public viewing. In the late night all the four Idols were taken in a procession to the makeshift aunt house at the basement of the temple.The Gods and Goddess will be worshipped at the Adap Mandap in the Aunt’s House till the Bahuda Yatra on 5th July 2025 as per the information of Temple sources.
The entire arrangements of the Rath Yatra were well managed and smoothly conducted by the able and active Organising team of Sree Neelachala Seva Sangha, which include President Bighneshwar Rout, Secretary Ravindra Nath Pradhan, Dr Ashok Choudhury, Abhaya Pradhan, Ashok Pradhan (A), Khirod Patra, Gajendra Samanta, Abhiram Sutar, Ashok Pradhan (B), Jitendra Mohapatra, Ajay Pradhan, Pankaj Mohanty, Nishidha Kumar Das, Rankanidhi Sahoo, Bijay Sahoo, Dillip Kumar Swain, Amulya Ojha, Sukanta Sahu, Manager of the Temple Rashmiranjan Behera, Assistant Managers Sashikanta Sahoo and Sanjiv Jena and Priests Sanatan Padhi, Debabrata Mishra, Jagabandhu Dash, Premananda Satpathy, Santosh Panda and Prashant Dash.
