Puri: Despite rain and a cloudy sky, thousands of devotees Tuesday pulled the chariots of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra till Gundicha temple, about three km from the main temple here.
According to the tradition, the chariots are not pulled after sunset. Thus, the pulling of the chariots to the Gundicha temple was halted midway Sunday due to sunset. After some rituals of the deities, the chariot pulling resumed in the morning. The chariot of Lord Balabhadra was pulled first at around 9.30 am followed by that of Devi Subhadra and Lord Jagannath.
Lord Jagannath’s chariot ‘Nandighosa’ was spotted with several cracks on two of its wheels for which the chariot pulling was halted midway near Bada Sankha. The devotees spent a lot of time in turning the chariot to move again on the Grand Road. Similarly, the ‘Darpadalana’ chariot of Devi Subhadra stopped on wayside for some time without moving forward. The ‘Taladhwaja’ of Lord Balabhadra also stopped near Balagandi chowk for a while.
The Taladhwaja reached in front of Gundicha temple at 10.50 am following which Darpadalana and Nandighosa reached the temple at 11.02 am and 12.17 pm respectively. The chariots were kept within barricades at Saradhabali where devotees can see the deities till Tuesday before they are taken to Gundicha temple in a procession.
The deities will remain at Gundicha temple for a week during their nine-day sojourn. Meanwhile, the police made an elaborate security arrangement around chariots and no devotee was allowed to climb them or touch the deities. PNN
