Rath Yatra: What, Why, When, How

What it is

Rath Yatra, the chariot festival, is kept on the second day of the bright half of Ashadha, at the start of the monsoon. In Puri in Odisha, Jagannath, "the lord of the universe", with his elder brother Balabhadra and his sister Subhadra, leaves the great temple and rides in three huge wooden chariots, pulled by hundreds of thousands of devotees, to the Gundicha temple, two and a half to three kilometres (about a mile and a half to two miles) away. They stay there for about a week and then return in the Bahuda Yatra.

New chariots are built for every Rath Yatra. On the day, the three deities are carried out in a rocking procession, and before the chariots move, the hereditary king of Puri sweeps the chariots with a golden broom, a sign that before the Lord everyone is a servant. Anyone may pull the ropes, and to touch them is counted a great blessing.

Rath Yatras are now held in many cities of India and abroad, from Ahmedabad to London and New York, where communities pull chariots through the streets with music and share prasad with everyone.

Why it is kept

King Indradyumna and the wooden image. The temple's palm-leaf chronicle (the Madala Panji) and the Purushottama Kshetra Mahatmya of the Skanda Purana tell of King Indradyumna, who longed to see Vishnu. In the chronicle, as the 1908 Puri district gazetteer retells it, Vishnu appeared to the king as a log floating in the sea. No carpenter could cut it, until Vishnu himself came as an aged carpenter and asked to be shut in alone with it. When the door was opened, the carpenter was gone, and the images of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra were finished only from the waist up. W. W. Hunter's telling (1872) says the queen persuaded the king to open the door before the promised time. Many families name the queen Gundicha, say the Gundicha temple bears her name, and call the carpenter Vishvakarma. The images have been worshipped in that form ever since, and they are renewed in a rare ceremony, Nabakalebara.

Why the Lord goes out. Families tell that Subhadra once wished to see the city, and her brothers took her out on chariots; others say the Lord goes to visit his aunt's home, the Gundicha temple, for a few days each year. The 1908 Puri gazetteer gives another reading: the festival recalls Krishna and Balarama's chariot journey from Gokula to Mathura. Many say the deeper meaning is that once a year the Lord comes out to meet everyone in the street, whoever they are.

Before the journey. About two and a half weeks before Rath Yatra, on the full moon of Jyeshtha, the deities are bathed in public with 108 pitchers of water (Snana Purnima). Tradition says that they then fall ill and rest out of sight for about two weeks (Anasara); the 1908 gazetteer describes the same days as the time the images are repainted behind a screen, after the bath has worn their paint. They come back to view a day or two before the chariot festival.

The texts behind the story

• Skanda Purana, Vaishnava Khanda, Purushottama Kshetra Mahatmya (Indradyumna and the wooden images), named; no public-domain translation was used.
• L. S. S. O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Puri (Calcutta, 1908): the legend of Indradyumna from the Madala Panji (pp. 89–90); the Snana Jatra, the repainting of the images and the Rath Jatra 17 days later (p. 104); the car festival, the Bara Danda road of about a mile and a half and the week at the Gundicha garden house, read as Krishna's journey to Mathura (pp. 106–107); the Raja's sweeping of the cars (p. 111). Summarised in our own words, not quoted. (pp. 89–90, 104, 106–107, 111)
• W. W. Hunter, Orissa, vol. 1 (London: Smith, Elder, 1872), "The Legend of Jagannath": the aged carpenter, the queen who persuaded the king to open the door early, and the images finished from the waist up. Hunter died 1900: public domain. Summarised in our own words. (vol. 1, pp. 92–93)

When it is kept

Rath Yatra is the Shukla Dwitiya of Ashadha, kept on the day on which Dwitiya is present at sunrise at your location; if Dwitiya touches no sunrise at all, the next day is taken, following the rule of Vaishnava calendars computed by the GCal program. Puri's own panjika sets the official date of the festival there, and the app's date has not yet been compared with it.

The date, from the calendar engine

• Rath Yatra 2027: Rath Yatra falls on Monday, July 5, 2027 in Washington DC (Odia rule, computed for this city). The date is the same in New Delhi.

The date depends on your city. Every city we cover is on the year page.

Traditions and regional customs

• Odia (Jagannath temple, Puri): Ashadha Shukla Dwitiya, by the temple's panjika
• Vaishnava (GCal): Dwitiya at sunrise, or the next day if it touches no sunrise
• Gujarati: the Ahmedabad Rath Yatra on the same day

Why the day can differ

Sunrise is local, so the computed day can differ between cities. The Puri temple's date is decided by its own panjika and priests, and community Rath Yatras abroad are usually held on a nearby weekend or on whatever day local permission for the street procession allows. Follow your temple or community for the procession.

How to keep it at home

1. If a Rath Yatra is held near you, join it: help pull the ropes, sing kirtan with the crowd and take prasad. Pulling the chariot is open to everyone.
2. At home, place a picture of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra, or of Krishna, on a small decorated cart or tray. Worship with flowers, tulsi, a lamp and incense, and pull the cart a short way around the room or garden with the family.
3. Prayers and songs often used: the Jagannath Ashtakam, verses of Jayadeva's Gita Govinda, which is sung daily in the Puri temple, the Hare Krishna mahamantra and Odia bhajans.
4. Share food: the Lord's prasad in Puri, mahaprasad, is shared by everyone without distinction, and many families give food to others on this day in that spirit.

Fasting

Rath Yatra is a festival, not a fast. Devotees who pull the chariots often eat only after taking part. In the heat and the crowds, drink water and look after children and elders.

Food

The Puri mahaprasad includes rice, dal, vegetable dishes and sweets cooked in clay pots in the temple kitchen. At home families make khichdi, dalma, kheer or poda pitha, an Odia baked cake of rice and jaggery said to be Jagannath's favourite.

For children

Once a year, Lord Jagannath, with his brother Balabhadra and his sister Subhadra, goes out of his temple for a holiday. Three giant, colourful chariots carry them through the streets, and thousands of people pull the long ropes together, singing. Everyone can help pull, big or small. After about a week at their aunt's temple, they ride home again.

Something to do together

Make a small chariot from a shoebox or a toy cart, decorate it with coloured paper and a flag, tie a string to it, and pull it around the house together while singing.

Sources

• Panchang engine rule rath-yatra (packages/panchang/data/festivals.json), with the sources it lists and its note that Puri's own panjika sets the official date and has not been compared.
• Vaisnava Events Calculation in GCAL (GCal algorithm documentation, 2008), the engine's source for the rule when Dwitiya touches no sunrise.
• L. S. S. O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Puri (Calcutta, 1908), "The worship of Jagannath". Summarised, not quoted.
• W. W. Hunter, Orissa, vol. 1 (London, 1872), "The Legend of Jagannath". Public domain.