New Delhi - 48th Rathayatra Festival was celebrated at the Jagannath Temple in Hauz Khas Village of New Delhi amidst much pomp and massive fanfare. The whole temple compound was elegantly decorated befitting to the grand occasion. Commencing from the wee hours of the day all the religious rituals were performed before the Deities in a solemn atmosphere. At around 1.15 p.m. in the afternoon the Four Deities were taken in Dhadi Pahandi procession to the colourful chariot stationed at the Grand Road in front of the temple. The entire atmosphere got reverberated with the recitals of hymns, roaring of slogans like Haribol and Jai Jagannath, sounding of Huluhuli, blowing of conch and playing of musical instruments such as Ghanta, Kartala, Mardala, Jhanja and Mrudanga by the devotees. Around 1 and half lakh strong Odia and non Odia devotees gathered here alongwith their family and relatives from Delhi and National Capital region to take part in the August Ceremony. The Temple Management Committee Sree Neelachala Seva Sangha under the active and able stewardship of Secretary Ravinder Nath Pradhan did elaborate arrangements to maintain discipline and decorum during the Mega Event.
Chief Guest Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Taranjit Singh Sandhu undertook the traditional service of sweeping in front of the Chariot called ‘Chherapahanra’. Other Distinguished Dignitaries present during the occasion were MP Bansuri Swaraj, MLAs Satish Upadhyaya, Anil Sharma, Former MLA Somnath Bharati, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s Wife Mridula Pradhan and Senior Journalist and Chief Editor of Bada Khabar Ardhendu Kumar Das.
The chariot pulling began at around 2.30 p.m. in afternoon. The 18 feet high majestic Chariot carrying the Four Deities on board was pulled from Hauz Khas Village Road till 2.5 K.M. away to Ansari Nagar via Shri Aurobindo Marg and then was taken back to temple premises in the evening. The scenes of long lining up of devotees in both sides of the Yatra route to have an auspicious glimpse of the Lord of the Universe, were overwhelming. The acts of throwing of flowers towards the Idols by bystanders and breaking of coconuts in the sidewall of Chariot were just memorable and mesmerising. After returning back to the Grand Road the Deities remained on the chariot for public viewing. In the late night all the four Idols were taken in a procession to the makeshift aunt house at the basement of the temple.The Gods and Goddess will be worshipped at the Adap Mandap in the Aunt’s House till the Bahuda Yatra on 24th July 2026 as per temple sources.Bhagirath Jha and Laxmi Narayan Beborta presented the live proceedings of the Car Festival.
The entire arrangements of the Rathayatra were well managed and smoothly conducted by the skilled Organising team of Sree Neelachala Seva Sangha, which include President Bighneshwar Rout, Secretary Ravinder Nath Pradhan, Ravi Pani, Gajendra Prasad Samanta, Pankaj Mohanty, Ajay Pradhan, Khirod Patra, Abhaya Pradhan, Ashok Pradhan (A), Ashok Pradhan (B), Jitendra Mohapatra, Nishidha Kumar Das, Rankanidhi Sahoo, Bijay Sahoo, Dillip Kumar Swain, Amulya Ojha, Sukanta Sahu, Upendra Behera, Dillip Raut, Bidhan Jena, Giridhari Mohanty, Manager of the Temple Rashmiranjan Behera, Assistant Managers Sashikanta Sahoo and Sanjiv Jena and Priests Sanatan Padhi, Debabrata Mishra, Jagabandhu Dash, Premananda Satpathy, Santosh Panda, Kalandi Charan Badu and Prashant Dash.
