Chandan Yatra
Date : May 6, 2011
Venue : Puri, Orissa
The 21-day festival of Chandan Yatra, of the sacred city of Puri, is held in the month of Baisakh, the hottest time of the year. The festival starts on the auspicious day of the Akshaya Tritiya and lasts for 21days. However, in temples outside Puri, it is celebrated only during the last three days.
The Yatra or Jatra refers to the ritualistic journey of the deities, who have been applied cooling sandalwood paste and water for respite from the heat, to the rivers. This stems from the belief that all the religious ceremonies of the land must culminate with an aquatic sojourn for the deities.
Thousands of pilgrims flock to Puri, the land of Lord Jagannath for this festival. During this time, the roads leading from the Lord's shrine to the sacred bathing ghat of Narendra Sarobar are decorated beautifully. Arches or torans are erected in front of monasteries and at cross-roads as these are the spots where the idols stop to rest and receive offerings.
The decorated representative images of Lord Jagannath, Laxmi and Saraswati are taken to the Narendra Sarobar at night in richly decorated palanquins. They are accompanied by priests, musicians and dancers. A number of devotees wait for the arrival of the idols which are then placed on the decorated boats.
The boats are generally red or white in color and resemble huge swans. Madanmohana, Laxmi and Saraswati ride on the white colored boat while Ramakrishna, along with the Pancha Shivas, rides the red one. The boats, in which temple dancers dance and sing, traverse the waters till morning light when they return to their respective shrines. This ritual is carried out everyday, for all 21 days of the festival.
This tradition is seen in some other parts of the state as well where images of local gods are taken out in procession on palanquins to nearby tanks for ceremonial boat rides. At Bhubaneswar, the Chandan Yatra, dedicated to Lord Lingaraj, is observed at the Bindu Sarobar, a huge tank near the temple. The float here is taken to the mandapa, an elevated platform in the middle of the tank.
Venue : Puri, Orissa
The 21-day festival of Chandan Yatra, of the sacred city of Puri, is held in the month of Baisakh, the hottest time of the year. The festival starts on the auspicious day of the Akshaya Tritiya and lasts for 21days. However, in temples outside Puri, it is celebrated only during the last three days.
The Yatra or Jatra refers to the ritualistic journey of the deities, who have been applied cooling sandalwood paste and water for respite from the heat, to the rivers. This stems from the belief that all the religious ceremonies of the land must culminate with an aquatic sojourn for the deities.
Thousands of pilgrims flock to Puri, the land of Lord Jagannath for this festival. During this time, the roads leading from the Lord's shrine to the sacred bathing ghat of Narendra Sarobar are decorated beautifully. Arches or torans are erected in front of monasteries and at cross-roads as these are the spots where the idols stop to rest and receive offerings.
The decorated representative images of Lord Jagannath, Laxmi and Saraswati are taken to the Narendra Sarobar at night in richly decorated palanquins. They are accompanied by priests, musicians and dancers. A number of devotees wait for the arrival of the idols which are then placed on the decorated boats.
The boats are generally red or white in color and resemble huge swans. Madanmohana, Laxmi and Saraswati ride on the white colored boat while Ramakrishna, along with the Pancha Shivas, rides the red one. The boats, in which temple dancers dance and sing, traverse the waters till morning light when they return to their respective shrines. This ritual is carried out everyday, for all 21 days of the festival.
This tradition is seen in some other parts of the state as well where images of local gods are taken out in procession on palanquins to nearby tanks for ceremonial boat rides. At Bhubaneswar, the Chandan Yatra, dedicated to Lord Lingaraj, is observed at the Bindu Sarobar, a huge tank near the temple. The float here is taken to the mandapa, an elevated platform in the middle of the tank.
