Puri: Devotees have gathered in Puri to witness and take part in the Bahuda Yatra of Lord Jagannth and his siblings. The Bahuda Yatra marks the end of the nine-day sojourn of Lord Jagannath and his siblings, Goddess Subhadra and Lord Balabhadra. The deities will return to Sri Mandir from Sri Gundicha temple in three different chariots pulled by devotees.
On the occasion, a huge crowd is expected to gather in Puri. The Security has been tightened in Puri ahead of the Bahuda Yatra. Odisha ADG (Law & Order) Sanjay Kumar said, “With the blessings of god, all our arrangements are in place. The police force, police personnel, officers, everybody has taken their position. Mangalarti is going on”
He further added, “All the arrangements like CCTV, force deployment, traffic clearance, crowd control, and quadrant control, are in place, we have checked it. We have done rehearsals also. So today we are not anticipating any problem…180 platoon forces have been deployed there.”
“Armed police forces have been deployed here. Besides three companies of RAF, two companies of CRPF have been deployed..,” he further concluded.
According to sources, the Bahuda Pahandi ritual will be held after 12:00 pm in the afternoon, while the Besasesha ritual will be observed between 1.00pm to 2:30 pm. After that, the Cherapahara will be held from 2:30 to 3:30 in the afternoon. The pulling of the chariots will likely start by 4 pm due to which security has been tightened in Puri. It is worth mentioning that, The word ‘Bahuda’ in Odia means return. The Bahuda Yatra is held on the auspicious day of Devshayani Ekadashi.
