Jagannath Rath Yatra 2028: Date, Rituals & Significance

Shukla Dwitiya runs 23 Jun, 21:52 → 24 Jun, 19:29.

New chariots are built every year from a fixed number of logs — Jagannath's Nandighosa with sixteen wheels, Balabhadra's Taladhwaja with fourteen, Subhadra's Darpadalana with twelve. The Gajapati king of Puri sweeps the chariot platforms with a golden broom (Chhera Pahara), a rite of the king as the deity's first servant. After a week at Gundicha the deities return in the Bahuda Yatra.

The deities fall 'ill' with a fever after the Snana Purnima bath two weeks before and are kept in seclusion (Anasara); they emerge for the Yatra newly painted. Pulling the ropes, or even touching them, is held to free one of many rebirths. Rath Yatras modelled on Puri are held at Ahmedabad, Kolkata (ISKCON) and hundreds of other places.

The yatra is read as Krishna returning to Vrindavan and to the gopis and Radha, or as Jagannath visiting his birthplace (the Gundicha temple as Mathura or the garden house of his aunt). The uncarved, large-eyed wooden forms of the three are unique to Puri, tied to a legend of King Indradyumna and the divine carpenter Vishvakarma who left the images unfinished when disturbed.

Source: Puri temple tradition; medieval and early-modern travellers' accounts of the Car Festival

The Puri temple and its Rath Yatra are attested from at least the twelfth century (the Ganga dynasty's temple, c. 1135); the festival is described by medieval pilgrims and by European travellers from the fourteenth century, whose accounts of the great car gave English the word 'juggernaut'.

• Puri temple tradition; medieval and early-modern travellers' accounts of the Car Festival
• Wikipedia — Ratha Yatra (Puri)

1. At Puri, Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra are brought out of the temple and placed on three huge wooden chariots, Nandighosa, Taladhwaja and Darpadalana.
2. The Gajapati king sweeps the chariots with a golden broom (chhera pahanra), and lakhs of devotees pull them to the Gundicha temple.
3. The deities return nine days later in the Bahuda Yatra; Rath Yatras are also held in Ahmedabad, Kolkata and cities worldwide.

• Puri, Odisha. The three chariots pulled from the Jagannath temple to Gundicha; Chhera Pahara by the Gajapati king; the Bahuda return a week later.
• Elsewhere. Rath Yatras at Ahmedabad (with the police-escorted route), ISKCON Kolkata and Mayapur, and hundreds of temples across India and abroad.

• Mahaprasad — Rice, dal, dalma and sweets cooked in the temple kitchen and sold at Ananda Bazar.
• Moong and jamun — In Ahmedabad, sprouted moong, jamun and cucumber are the yatra's prasad.

Jagannath Rath Yatra is kept on the day when Dwitiya of Ashadha Shukla paksha prevails at sunrise. That day is Saturday, 24 June 2028. Dwitiya holds at sunrise only on this day.

at sunrise

Rath Yatra is Ashadha Shukla Dwitiya — the second tithi of the bright fortnight of Ashadha, in June or July, two days after the Ashadha new moon and a few days before Devshayani Ekadashi. The pahandi carrying-out of the deities begins in the forenoon.

A lunar date: Dwitiya of the bright half of Ashadha drifts about 11 days earlier each solar year, then jumps back ~19 days when a leap (Adhika) month is inserted.