CAR FESTIVAL

 

CAR FESTIVAL

Introduction

The Car

Festival is one of the great festivals of Odia people. It originated at Puri.

Now it has spread to countries like Great Britain and America. It is celebrated

in almost all parts of India.

Importance

This is

a typical oriya festival. It reflects the essence of the heritage and culture

of Orissa. Orissa is known as the land of Lord Jagannath. Lord Jagannath is the

most revered diety of the Odias. The Car Festival is the most important

festival of Lord Jagannath. To Odia people, this festival has a special

dignity. Every Odiya longs to take part in this festival.

Legend

There is

a legend behind the celebration of the Car Festival. King Indradyumna was a

great devotee of Lord Vishnu. He had built a majestic temple at Puri for the

God. Then he meditated upon the God to obtain a suitable idol. The God granted

his prayer. The king was asked to bring a log that was floating in the sea near

Banki and make idols with that. The king found the log, but no carpenter was

able to make idols of the God with that log. At last God Brahma came in the

disguise of a carpenter and expressed his willingness to construct the idols.

With the permission of the king, he built the idols in the residence of Queen Gundicha. When the idols were built, they were taken to the temple and placed on the Ratna Simhasana. They were named Jagannath, Balabhadra, Subhadra and Sudarshan. Many other temples for different deities were built around the 'main temple of the Lord. But Lord Jagannath became the presiding deity of the temple. The city of Puri was named Jagannathdham according to the name of the Lord.

The origin of Rathyatra

Queen

Gundicha requested Lord Jagannath to visit His place of birth at least once in

a year with his elder brother Lord Balaram, sister Devi Subhadra and power

Sudarshan. Lord Jagannath agreed to this request gladly The residence of Queen

Gundicha was converted into Gundicha temple. The Lords go to Gundicha temple

every year on the 2nd day of the brightmoon of Asadha, the day of their

incarnation. They remain there for nine days. They return to their main temple

on Bahuda Dashami. The cars

For the

Car Festival of the Lords, three cars are made of wood. The making of cars

start from Akshaya Trutiya. After the cars are made, they are lavishly painted

and decorated with coloured cloth. Several beautifully painted images are

fitted to the cars at different points. In the front wooden images of winged

horses and charioteers are also fitted. Only the wood of specific trees such as

Fasi and Asan is used to construct the cars. The cars of Lord, Jagannath, Lord

Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra are called Nandighosh, Taladhwaja and Devadalan

respectively. The Nandighosh has 16 wheels, the Taladhwaja has 14 wheels and

the Devadalan has 12 wheels.

The celebration

On the

day of the festival, the deities are taken out of the temple in Pahandi. It is

a rare sight. After the Gods are seated in their respective cars, the Gajapati

king of Puri comes in a palanquin. The king sweeps the cars with a golden

broom. This is called "Chhera Paharan". After the ceremonial

sweeping. the king offers his prayers to the Gods in the presence of His

Highness, Jagadguru Shankaracharya of Puri. After all the rituals, the devotees draw the ropes attached to the cars to the accompaniment of conch-blows, beating of gongs and ghantas, and singing of bhajanas.

Glory of Orissa

The car

Festival is the most religious festival of Orissa. In this festival all the

people, irrespective of caste or creed take part. Anybody can pull the rope of

the Lord. People think that a darshan of the Lord on the car is the surest way

to heaven. In this festival there is no difference between rich and poor,

sinner or pious, high-born or low-born. People are thrilled to have their Lord

among them. Lakhs and lakhs of devotees go to Puri each year to witness this

great festival. This is a glory of Orissa.

##### END #####