Somewhere in the 3-km long stretch of Bada Danda street between Jagannath and Gundicha temples in Odisha’s Puri, Anirban Bose cranes his neck to see better over the sea of heads around him. It’s been drizzling, and near him, the sounds of the ghanti (cymbals) — played by some priests dressed in red — get louder and louder.

Suddenly, the crowd surges forward, their hands raised in prayer, as they see what they were waiting for: Lord Jagannath emerging from his 12th Century temple and heading towards the Gundicha temple in his chariot, Nandighosh.

“We are happy that there’s a Jagannath Temple at Digha but nothing compares with the Puri Temple,” Bose, a native of West Bengal, says as the chariots pass by. “This is the original seat of the deities, and it would be immature to compare the Rath Yatra at Digha with this one.”

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Bose travelled 500 km from Kolkata to witness the grand annual Rath Yatra, or the chariot festival, of the Hindu God Jagannath. According to Hindu mythology, the Lord and his siblings – Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra – embark on a nine-day annual sojourn to their birthplace, the Gundicha Temple. The deities remain there until the ‘Bahuda Yatra’ — or the return journey — scheduled on July 5 this year.

West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee too was among the millions of devotees to join the annual religious event at Puri, which saw several VVIPs. (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee too was among the millions of devotees to join the annual religious event at Puri, which saw several VVIPs. (PTI)

For the temple town of Puri, the event is a grand one, seeing lakhs of devotees not only from Odisha but also the neighbouring West Bengal. But the yatra this year is particularly significant: it comes at a time when there’s a row between Odisha’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and West Bengal’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) over the ‘Jagannath Dham’ – a replica of Puri’s 12th century Jagannath Temple — inaugurated on April 30 this year in Digha, West Bengal.

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West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee too was among the millions of devotees to join the annual religious event at Puri, which saw several VVIPs — including Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, and Odisha Governor Hari Babu Kambhampati and Chief Minister Mohan Majhi – pull the chariot.

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Banerjee has been in the temple town since Wednesday and was among those who were part of ‘Chhera Pahanra’. A key ritual that involved sweeping the floors of the rath with a golden broom, this ritual is traditionally done by Puri’s erstwhile royal Dibyasingha Deb.

At the yatra, the crowd surges towards the ornate temple-like chariots being pulled by lakhs of devotees. As the three chariots – Lord Jagannath’s Nandighosh with its red and yellow canopy, Goddess Subhadra’s black and red Devadalana and Lord Balabhadra’s green and red Taladhwaja – pass by, the cries of “Jai Jagannath” rings out.

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At the yatra, the crowd surges towards the ornate temple-like chariots being pulled by lakhs of devotees. At the yatra, the crowd surges towards the ornate temple-like chariots being pulled by lakhs of devotees.

The Nandighosh rath was pulled only a few metres Friday, with officials citing delay in rituals. As the crowds swelled in Puri for the yatra, the Odisha government pulled all stops, stationing 10,000 police personnel in the temple town for the annual event. Odisha’s BJP Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi also directed the administration to make this year’s yatra “incident-free”.

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There were reports about people complaining of suffocation and collapsing during Rath Yatra. Ambulances were called in to take some devotees to the hospital.

When asked, Odisha’s Health Minister Mukesh Mahaling blamed the humidity for “one or two” devotees collapsing.

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Also Read | Puri Jagannath temple servitors warned against taking part in Digha temple inauguration

“The rescue team took them to the hospital immediately and their conditions are absolutely normal now. Adequate arrangements are being done in all healthcare centres,” he said.

Devotees at the annual Rath Yatra festival in Puri, Friday. (PTI) Devotees at the annual Rath Yatra festival in Puri, Friday. (PTI)

Meanwhile, the row over the naming of the Digha temple continued to fester — day before the Rath Yatra, Puri Shankaracharya Nischalananda Saraswati claimed the new temple was just a means of generating revenue and “had nothing to with devotion to Lord Jagannath”.

The remarks came over a month after the Odisha chief minister wrote to his West Bengal counterpart that naming the Digha temple ‘Jagannath Dham’ had “hurt” the sentiments of millions of devotees.

The same month, Puri royal, also the chairman of the Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee, too had slammed the West Bengal government claiming that the move amounts to violation of “scriptural injunctions and long-established tradition”.