Servitors urge Naveen to celebrate Rath Yatra without devotees
Bhubaneswar: Daitapati Nijog, a prominent association of servitors of the Puri Jagannath Temple, on Wednesday wrote to chief minister Naveen Patnaik and urged the state government to celebrate Rath Yatra on June 23 without the participation of devotees. It was also held in the peak of the Spanish flu pandemic in the country in 1918, the Daitapati Nijog said.
In their representation to the chief minister, the Daitapati Nijog further said Rath Yatra was observed during the 1857 Indian Rebellion or Sepoy Mutiny and several other crises in the country. “Though the festival was cancelled during attacks by Muslim rulers in the past, the precedence should not be exemplified,” the Nijog said, adding “The Rath Yatra is linked to the sentiments of millions of devotees. There may be discontentment among devotees if it is stopped this time,” the representation said.
The Daitapati servitors perform key rituals from Debasnan Purnima, a major festival in the run-up to the Rath Yatra, until Bahuda Yatra (the return car festival) in the temple and on the chariots. “Lakhs of people had died owing to the outbreak of Spanish flu in 1918. Despite the odds, the Jagannath Rath Yatra was celebrated in a low-key manner that year. This time too, we can celebrate the festival with restrictions,” the Nijog said.
Earlier on Monday, the 12th century shrine’s Mukti Mandap’s Brahmin scholars too had advocated a restricted Rath Yatra celebration.
Daitapati Nijog’s secretary Durga Dasmohapatra said the government should celebrate the Rath Yatra with the help of servitors and police.
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