Every year on the second day of Shukla Paksha (bright fortnight) of the Odia month of Ashadha, lakhs of devotees from different parts of Odisha, outside the state and nation throng Puri to witness the world-famous Rath Yatra.
But very few know it that thousands of years ago six chariots were built for the Rath Yatra.
Why Six Chariots
Thousands of years ago, a river named Malini, a tributary of the Bhargavi river, was flowing through the grand road (Bada Danda). It separated Srimandir from the Gundicha temple.
Unlike the present year’s Rath Yatra, back then, the Rath Yatra witnessed the pulling of six chariots-three from Srimandir to the river bank and the other three from the river bank to the Gundicha temple.
The three chariots with the deities on them were pulled up to the river bank. Then the deities were taken to the other side of the river through a makeshift bridge. Then the deities were mounted on the three chariots waiting on the other side of the river. These three chariots were pulled to the Gundicha temple.
According to some scholars, not six but seven chariots were built then. The seventh one was used to carry musicians. And, the deities were not taken through a makeshift bridge but in a boat to the other side of the river.
Why Six Chariots Reduced to Three
Back then, of the nine days, the Holy Trinity’s stay at Gundicha temple was three days only. The rest six days were getting used in the journey. This apart, devotees would face difficulty in pulling six chariots on the sand.
One day, Saradha Devi, wife of the then king Gajapati Narasingha Dev, dreamt of Lord Jagannath ordering her to make the Rath Yatra free from any obstacles.
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Then, with the due permission from the king, the work to fill up the Malini River started. The river was filled up with sand and on the next Rath Yatra day, the chariot pulling didn’t have any stoppage. It started from Srimandir and ended at Gundicha temple.
The king renamed the sand-filled place as ‘Saradha Bali’ after queen Saradha Devi, to remember her great work.
Since then, the tradition of constructing six (or seven) chariots ceased to exist and the pulling of three chariots started.