Jagannatha Puri Ratha Yatra Festival Discovery Channel Documentary

They call it the land of contradictions and diversions, a country with undeniable beauty, enriched by a glorious past, and spirituality deeply rooted in its culture. They call it Incredible India. There are many amazing festivals in all of India's 19 regions. The Rath Yatra festival in Puri is one of the most important and biggest celebrations of them all.

The Rath Yatra or the car festival is an extremely important celebration for the Hindu faith. In a country with over a billion inhabitants, only outnumbered by China, it boasts many faiths. Hindu followers are approximately 81% of the population. The festival is an event that gathers every summer a massive amount of people that come from all over India to Puri, the town where it takes place. are estimated to be around one million participants.

They are all motivated by a strong will to cherish and get the blessing of Jagannath, who they believe is the Lord of the Universe. Some people do come even from Delhi by foot, carrying their belongings and camping on the roadside at the station. We give them mukti from this Munden world to erase all their to erase all their wrongdoings. You see his eyes, you see the vastness of the universe and you realize the smallness of yourself and you can totally surrender to him.

Puri is a little town on the eastern coast of the Bengal Bay. Puri is located in the region of Orissa. Orissa has a population of 35 million and the local language is called Aurya. Besides being a charming tourist destination, Puri has a great religious significance for the Hindu believers.

Gajapati Maharaja is a direct descendant of Arisa's mighty kings who ruled the region for centuries. Today, the king's role is purely ceremonial. He has no political or governmental influence. Gajapati means the lord of the elephants because at one time, the kings of this part of India had a very large elephant force in their army.

And even now, the forests here are well known for the elephant population. And Maharaja means king or emperor. The tradition of the Gajapati kings is that they are the servant of the Lord. So in all major festivals, they perform direct service before the Lord.

This is one of the four most holy places for Hindus all over the world. It is known as Purushottam Dham. Puri is just a short form. And it is the major Dham for Eastern India.

And it is important, it is sacred because of Lord Jagannath. The temple that we see now is the last in a series of temples which were built for the Lord in the very same place. And Lord Jagannath has been worshipped here since time immemorial. Culturally, there's a lot of diversity.

We have the tribal people, and we have the town people, the urban people. People are deeply religious, and that is the reason why there is so much of peace. Maybe there is not so much of wealth, but there is plenty of peace. People are contented, they are happy.

Three huge chariots are being built to carry the three gods, Lord Jagannath, his sister Subharta, and his brother Balbhadra. His color is black and then there is yellow. And then there is white. So that means something?

Well, the scholars tend to look upon that as representing the three major human races, the Nugroid, the Mongoloid, and the Aryan. When we see Lord Jagannath, we see a very strange appearance. It's neither human, nor animal, nor anything known to this planet, is meant to tell us that the Lord's appearance is really something which we human beings through our mind, through our intellect cannot perceive. Lord Jagannath and Sanatana Dharma projects that foundation that in this diversity let us not forget the basic underlying unity that everything is one, God is one, and actually we are all children of the one God.

So the tradition of Lord Jagannath very strongly portrays this fundamental message. The three chariots which take part in the festival, they are made new every year. It takes about one and a half months to make the chariots and the government supplies the wood for the purpose from the forest. For each part of the chariot a specific variety of timber is used.

The deities will be carried from the Jagannath Temple to Jagannath's birthplace, the Gundicha Temple on the final day of the festival. They remain there for seven days, normal daily rituals are performed and after seven days the Lords come back on the return journey which is called Bahudha Yatra. It will be a long 1.4 mile ride in Puri's main street, Badadanda. Pulling the heavy chariots is a great honor and will only be done with bare hands.

Building these chariots is a tradition that has been passed on for generations. The people who make these chariots, they are the traditional craftsmen who are called as Maharanas. It is very interesting when you watch the entire proceedings, the way they move the chariot and they have to stop it from time to time to adjust the ropes. It is only by tying the ropes at different points of the chariot and angling the rope, the pulling of the rope, that the direction of the chariots is controlled.

The worship of Lord Jagannath, the tradition of Lord Jagannath began here in Puri. This is the place of its origin. We do not know when it started. It goes back beyond recorded history.

The way the chariots are constructed, The way the rituals are performed, the way the entire celebrations go on is almost unchanged at least over a period of thousands of years. At the Bhagavad Ashram in Puri, preparations for the festival are being held. Baba Shree is a highly respected and knowledgeable man in the Hindu faith. The only reason for this is that Jagatarnath Jagarnath has been worshipped for 11 months and 15 days and has been worshipped for 60 days and 90 days.

It is said that Lord Vedavyasankara has been worshipped for 80 years. The village of Pipli on the highway to Puri is famous for the applique work fabric typical of Orissa. It carries a long tradition of creating the colorful cloths that are being used to serve the temples and during festivals. Today, customers can enjoy a variety of artisan works that are being sold in Pipli's main road.

Even if the main event will take place in Puri, many villages in Orissa will celebrate the festival. The women's red painted toes is a symbol for a special occasion. They will wear the most beautiful saris for the temple's praying. Covering 425 square miles, Chilaka is a great lagoon connected by a small passage to the Bay of Bengal Sea.

It is located 31 miles southwest of Puri. A boat ride with a local fisherman may provide a glimpse of the dolphins that reside in the lake. Locals that live on the Islands around Chilaka depend on prawns, fish and crabs for their living. It is always good to finish the trip with a sweet green coconut fresh from the tree.

The city of Bhubaneswar is the capital of Orissa. It is also called the city of temples. The name was given since there were once 7,000 temples here. Today 400 of them remain and are very active.

The government is constantly renovating the structures. Some of the temples are over a thousand years old. The Bindu Sarovar is a sacred reservoir, believed to contain water from every holy river in India. Many historical sites can be seen around Bhubaneswar.

They are the remaining proof of the glorious past and religious importance of the Kalinga kingdom that ruled here for over a millennium. The Udagiri Caves, just four miles north of the city, were built in 3 AD by Jain monks. Some monks choose to live here even today. The stone carvings portray social and royal events, gods and dance ceremonies.

The friendly monkeys, a sacred animal in India, are freely residing around the caves. Indian food is famous all over the world. The surprising fact is there are over 17 major languages spoken in every region in India, and the food is equally diverse. The Swasti Plaza Hotel in Bhubaneswar is a perfect place to eat the finest dishes that are typical of Orissa.

All the cuisines in India, you have, you know, mix and match, but here what I've seen is there's a lot of stress given on food being healthy. The oil being used is mustard oil. Mustard oil is you know oil taken out of mustard seeds and it's very healthy, very low in cholesterol and has a peculiar taste. We start with our spices right away because our spices are more stronger they're not so mild so we got to cook them up and then mix them up with the main ingredients.

Otherwise, if you use them in the end, there will be a very strong taste left. In fact, the complete Indian meal consists of one raita, one curry item, some curd, some rice, chapati, and a salad, a green salad. This is all eaten together. The saree must be one of the most recognizable identifications of India.

The beauty of the sarees are visible everywhere. Bright colors, carefully done motifs, and the incredible manual work it all takes are worth every penny spent on it. Five meters long, they are a piece of art to make, and not so easily figured out how to wear. Don't you think I'm too covered?

To see how it is all done from scratch, a beautiful two-and-a-half-hour drive from Bhubaneswar among green fields leads to Nuwa Patna village. Whole families are entirely dedicated to create these amazing silk masterpieces in an art form called tie and dye. It takes 15 days to two men, and their son and daughter will help them. One of India's appeals is the astonishing expression of their culture and religion through art.

In Orissa, some entire villages are dedicated to works of art. It is visible everywhere. From temples to stone carvings to simple tools sold on the street, the artist's village near Puri is such a place. The government declared it a heritage site.

The specialty here is drawing, with the smallest details on canvas, palm leaves and coconuts. Tales from India's great epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, as well as gods and mighty animals are the popular motifs. This village has 120 families, so all are artists. Approximately 1,000 people stay in the village.

It's painted on pencils and then put on the color, pointed on black color and then ornaments are used. This middle point is Jagannath and all around it is the incarnation of God Vishnu. And this is only black and white color. So black color is a traditional, you know, that's a collector from Lyam.

That's an Odisan traditional. And white color is collect from Sivi. This is Jagannath temple from Puri. So you look the gods, two brothers and middle point is sister.

You give me order and you give what's your choice. So I also make it. So how long does it make you to make this? One year.

One year. The elders make sure the younger generation will take over their craft someday. From an early age, they are given a drawing board and start learning the basics. Artists are happy to show the visitors the process of their work.

Bargaining is always expected, but the rewards are priceless. The Sun Temple in Karnak is located 40 miles from Bhubaneswar. It is considered to be one of India's architectural masterpieces. Surya, or sun, is the source of all energies.

So right from civilization or before that, people used to worship sun god. This temple is built like a chariot with 24 wheels and pulled by seven horses. Seven horses represent seven days of a week, or you can say the seven colors of the sun. 24 winds that represent 24 hours of a day or 24 fortnight of a year.

The image of Surya, the sun god, stands high in the temple in three different places. The wheels and the horses are similar to the chariots built for the Rath Yatra festival. The dance hall is decorated with impressive dancing motifs. In Orissa Dance Academy near the Sun Temple, these gracious stone movements come alive.

This academy, founded in 1975 by guru Gangadhar Pradhan, a dancer himself, has the purpose of conserving and distributing Orissa's traditional dances. It's really necessary, kind of perfect dancer, you making perfect dancer, very important, necessary to maybe four to six hours. Six hours is very important. A day.

A day. Any classical piece, any traditional piece, you get fast education, practicing more and more time, day and night, day and night, day and night, day and night. You can perfect classical. Gotipua dance is the precursor to Odissi dance.

The name Gotipua means goatee, one. Ampua is a boy. It is performed only by boys dressed and made up to look like females. The dance is choreographed with acrobatic poses called Banda.

This Academy is much more than a daytime dancing school. It is a home for a small community nourished and managed by Guru Banda. They sleep here, stay here, and every ritual, every day work, everything is maintained here. I'm organizing a festival in a different place.

Somebody came to say, I have one son, can take, can teach, can prepare to dance. He's working, just begging. He comes singing, literally singing. He also sings two, three songs.

Odyssey is the development of Gotipua, a very graceful and delicate dance performed by women. It customarily begins with the dancers entering the stage with flowers offering to praise Lord Jagannath. The festival's biggest day begins with the masses trying to find a place close to the chariots hours before it starts. It is a wonderful experience.

I am really excited because it is a vast humanity that turns up to have the glimpse of God and also to have a feeling to embrace him, to touch him, to look at him. I feel that more than a sense of God, a sense of belongingness that is experienced during the Hayata. The large street suddenly seems very small when a million devotees try to get near the chariots. It's something different.

We hardly get a chance for this. It's very nice. And this is the first time I've come here and I'm feeling very great. We see this every year on TV, but it's very nice to see it directly, first time, when you hug him, exactly.

It's an inner feeling which is very nice, which you can't even express in words. It's too good. The temple's dancers and acrobats surround the chariots a few times. The deities arrive, one by one, and stir excitement in the crowd.

The king has an important role on the day of the festival. The king has to go from his palace onto each chariot and perform the service before the Lord, which is making various kinds of offering, offering of the lamp and of flowers, of cloth, of garland. And then he has to perform a very unique ritual, which is sweeping of the chariot around where the lords are seated. it. This is very very unique because we don't really see a king sweeping with a broom but this ritual our ancestors since thousand years they have been doing it to show that before the Lord we have to completely surrender.

We have to surrender our ego and we have to be humble. So this set a very good example example for the people at large that the king himself is serving the Lord in this manner so we also must dedicate all our life and all our action to the Lord. Wooden horses are attached to the front of the chariots. The ropes are pulled to start the hard but highly emotional journey to the Gandicca temple.

First goes the chariot of Balbhadra, Lord Jagannath's brother. Subharta, his sister's chariot, follows him. Last one is the Lord's chariot. There is no way to steer the massive vehicles.

Only by stopping and readjusting the ropes are they able to move safely down the street. Here in Puri, the unbelievable is happening. Somehow, as if in perfect harmony, and despite all laws of logic, the chariots find their way among the overwhelming sea of people. What can explain India's charm?

Perhaps it's the diversity of their culture or the depth of its history. It could be the bare simplicity of existence. Despite its difficulties and poverty, India won't lose the joys of life. This complex country is everything but unpredictable.

They say that once you arrive, you will always want to come back. They call it Incredible India. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.