Odias, foreigners among visitors at maiden festival

Time of India

3 days ago

Digha: Devotees from Odisha and other states joined residents of Bengal to celebrate the first Rath Yatra in Digha on Friday. Foreigners, mostly from Iskcon, and non-resident Indians also witnessed the celebrations with great excitement.
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For people from Kolkata and other districts of Bengal, Digha has turned out to be a new favourite during Rath Yatra.
Cops at police assistance booths, set up for crowd management, helped devotees make their way to the temple. "Several people have come from outside the state, and they started visiting the temple from the morning, hours before the Rath Yatra," an officer said.
Bharati Nayak from Balasore, Odisha, was swaying to the beats of "Hare Rama Hare Krishna" during the festival.
"We came to Digha last night, and I am happy with the grandeur of the festival on the maiden Rath Yatra celebration at the new Digha temple," she said.
Debabrata Behera, also from Balasore, was spotted chanting "Jai Jagannath" with the crowd.
He said, "Every year, we go to Puri on this day. But this time, we changed our plan. The celebration in Digha was made on a grand scale. Digha being close to Odisha, I hope more people will come here from my state for Rath Yatra in the coming years.
The rituals observed in the run-up to the rolling of the chariot wheels conform to the tradition followed in our state."
Partonen Platon from Finland, who danced on the road with others from Iskcon, said, "It is great to be part of the chariot festival in Digha. After Puri, it is a new addition to the Rath Yatra in India, and I feel that the festival in Digha started with on bigger dimension than expected."
Prasun Sinha, originally from Gujarat and now settled in San Francisco, USA, flew to Bengal to be part of the first Rath Yatra festival in Digha.
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"I saw the photographs of the temple after it was inaugurated in April and decided to visit during this festival. This is my first visit to Digha as well, although I have been to Puri earlier," said Sinha, who checked into a hotel in New Digha on Thursday.
Rekha Sharma from Jamshedpur, who was accompanied by three other women, said, "We are happy to have darshan of Lord Jagannath in the temple in the morning. We were asked to stand behind the barricades and touch the ropes from a distance, and we did not find any problem in that.
We may come here again during the festival next year."
Purnima Das from Baranagar said, "Earlier, Puri was the only destination for holidaying during Rath Yatra. This year, we decided to come to Digha, which is wearing a new look for this festival. In years to come, Digha will turn into a new favourite for this festival for many Bengalis like me."