[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
News: India Hindu festival draws over a million devotees
In clari.world.asia.india, C-reuters@clari.net (Reuters) wrote:
PURI, India (Reuter) - More than one million Hindu pilgrims
and tourists thronged the coastal town of Puri in the eastern
Indian state of Orissa Wednesday to witness the traditional rath
yatra (chariot ride) of Lord Jagannath.
Amid the clash of cymbals and blowing of conch shells, the
giant limbless wooden images of three deities -- Lord Jagannath,
Lord Balabhadra and Subhadra -- rode in chariots out of the
Jagannath temple.
The annual festival, which falls in July or August, has been
celebrated for the last 1,000 years. Devotees traditionally pull
the three giant chariots amid frenzied chanting of hymns.
Scores of worshippers have in the past been crushed under
Lord Jagannath's 45-foot, 18-wheel chariot rolling through the
streets.
The English word ``juggernaut'' was derived from Jagannath's
chariot.
No deaths were reported Wednesday, but the Press Trust of
India said several people fainted due to the heat and humidity,
and had to be carried away on stretchers.
Authorities were alert to protect pilgrims after two 60
people died in two separate religious gatherings in the Indian
towns of Hardwar and Ujjain earlier this week.
The Jagannath temple, about 40 miles from the state capital
Bhubaneswar, is one of India's holiest Hindu shrines.
Lord Jagannath (or the master of the world) is an
incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the preserver in the Hindu
pantheon's trinity that includes Brahma the creator and Shiva
the destroyer.
