JAGANNATH RATH YATRA: SIGNIFICANCE OF DEITIES

Rath Yatra is a great event for the Hindu devotees, which get celebrated every year. It attracts the large volume of the devotees from different corners of India. Rath Yatra involves a procession with a chariot with deities Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra.

According to Hindu mythology, there was a King Indradyumna who was a great devotee to Vishnu. He had a divine communication in the dream that Lord Vishnu can be seen in an another best form in Utkala ( Orissa). He deputed Vidhayapati to spot that place. After the laborious search, Vidhapati found that Vishnu known by connotative Nila Mahadeva. Thereafter, Vidyapati returned to King Indradyumna and told him about the location, but when he reached to the location he found that Nila Mahadev is disappeared. When he was in the state of sorrow, he received a divine message to go to sea-shore and to fabricate the body of Jagannath by using a log of wood. At last Lord Vishnu, took pity on Indradyumna and came front of him as a carpenter. He said that he can fabricate the best form of Vishnu if he allowed to remain in a closed room for 21 days. Carpenter Warned that under no condition he be disturbed in these 21 days but Gudica, the queen failed to resist the temptation and requested king to open the door. Thus, when the door was opened there was a set of four wooden images in incomplete form and there was no trace of the Carpenter. At present, all those four incomplete wooden images are worshipped as the Jagannath, Balabhadra, Subhadra and Sudarasana.

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