..::Ima-Jena-tion::..

Puri offers a number of colourful fairs and festivals such as Chandan Yatra, Snan Yatra (Bath festival), Ganesh Puja, etc., but it is the Car Festival, an annual sojourn of the three deities riding their lofty chariots to their respective huge cars--14 metres high, 10 metres square and supported on 16 giant wheels, each over two metres in diametre that marks the climax. These chariots or Rathas are pulled along the Bada Danda or the Grand Road by lakhs of devotees to Gundicha temple over a kilometre. At Gundicha the deities take new apparels every day and after a lapse of 8 days return to the main shrine riding the same Rathas. At the termination of the Yatra, the cars are broken up into pieces and religious relics are made from them. Thus, every year new chariots are built. The images of the dieties are also disposed of at intervals of 8 to 19 years, depending on astrological calculations, and new images are installed as prescribed in the religious text. The Rath Yatra symbolizes Krishna's departure to Mathura from Gokul.