Puri Hit by a Wave of Spiritualism

Puri, July 19, 2013: Badadanda soaked in festive spirit as a sea of humanity thronged the town braving rain and humidity for BahudaYatra on Thursday. The sight was delightful with euphoric devotees jostling for space for a view of deities.

The rhythmic beats of cymbals and gongs and blowing of conches added to the festive mood and enthusiasm of pilgrims around Gundicha Temple. "The crowd and rain were no deterrents for me. I had a good darshan of the deities," said Gyana Ranjan Hota (63), a devotee from Sakhigopal. Similarly, Pratik Swain from Gajapati district has been staying in Puri since the yatra began. "Not a day has gone by since Rath Yatra began that I did not go for darshan," he said.

At the yatra site, Odissi and Gotipua dancers put up their best performance oblivious to the distractions around them. They had ear only for their beats. Martial art artistes too showed their skills while presenting "banati" in front of chariots.

Before start of pahandi, two groups of priests had an altercation inside Gundicha Temple. "It is an internal problem. We will sort it out," said temple's chief administrator Arvind Padhee.

The deities traversed on Grand Road towards Jagannath temple soon after Puri scion Gajapati Dibyasigha Deb performed "chhera pahanra" (sweeping of chariots) but could not reach their destinations by evening. The temple administration had asked all priests to be careful on Thursday after a servitor's legs were crushed under Jagannath's chariot on Rath Yatra.

The state government heaved a sigh of relief as Bahuda Yatra passed off peacefully in the backdrop of terror alert sounded after the Bodh Gaya blasts. "Like Rath Yatra we made adequate security arrangements. No untoward incident was reported on Thursday. We were on alert after the Bodh Gaya incident," DGP Prakash Mishra told the media.

Source: The Times of India, DT. July 19, 2013.