Festival Jagannath, Balabhadra, Subhadra
Jagannath Rath Yatra
The day the three deities of Puri, Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra, leave the temple and are drawn on three wooden chariots down the Bada Danda to the Gundicha temple, where they stay nine days before the return journey.
Jagannath Rath Yatra 2027 falls on Monday, 5 July, computed for Chennai.
Latitude, longitude and time zone 13.08, 80.27
Asia/Kolkata · UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place.
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A tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
North India calendar, computed for Chennai
- Monday, 5 July 2027
- Saturday, 24 June 2028
- Friday, 13 July 2029
Where Jagannath Rath Yatra falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 5 Jul
- 2028: 24 Jun, 10 days earlier
- 2029: 13 Jul, 18 days later
The dates, year by year
North India calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The day the three deities of Puri, Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra, leave the temple and are drawn on three wooden chariots down the Bada Danda to the Gundicha temple, where they stay nine days before the return journey. The chariots are built new each year from wood cut after Akshaya Tritiya, and the Gajapati king sweeps the road before them.
- Deity
- Jagannath, Balabhadra, Subhadra
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
The Rath Yatra closes a fortnight of waiting: at Snana Purnima the deities are bathed with a hundred and eight pots of water, fall ill with fever and are hidden from sight in the anasara, fed on herbal medicines, until they show themselves again freshly painted the day before the journey. The three chariots each have a name, Nandighosa for Jagannath, Taladhwaja for Balabhadra and Darpadalana for Subhadra, and the Gundicha temple they go to is held to be their aunt's house, where they rest and are fed poda pitha on the way back. The heart of the day is that God comes out to meet those who cannot come in: the ropes are pulled by anyone at all, of any caste or country, and touching them is held to be worth many pilgrimages. North Indian families who cannot reach Puri pull a chariot in their own town, and for the Hindi-speaking pilgrim Puri is the eastern of the four dhams.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Jagannath Rath Yatra: how it is kept
Keep ready
- a picture or small images of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra
- a small wooden or toy rath
- a rope and flowers for the chariot
- chandan, tulsi and a ghee lamp
- sprouted moong
- jamun, cucumber and mangoes
- a shankh and cymbals for kirtan
- the Jagannath Ashtakam
The steps
0 of 7 done
What is cooked
The prasad in north and west India is ankurit moong, sprouted green gram, with jamun and cucumber, as Ahmedabad gives it to its crowds; at Puri the Mahaprasad of the Ananda Bazaar, rice, dal, dalma and khiri cooked in clay pots, is eaten across every caste line. Bengal's rath mela fries jilipi and papad, and Odia homes make poda pitha for the return.
The hour
Clock times for Monday, 5 July 2027 at Chennai
Ashadha Shukla Dwitiya at sunrise; the pahandi procession begins in the morning and the ropes are pulled in the afternoon.
The main rite. Ashadha Shukla Dwitiya holding the sunrise; the deities come out in the morning, the chariots are swept, and the pulling begins in the afternoon. The return journey, the Bahuda, is on the Shukla Dashami, and household pujas keep the same hours.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 05:47 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
| Aparahna | 13:31 | the afternoon, three fifths of the daylight after sunrise |
Sunrise 05:47, sunset 18:40, UTC+5.5. These are the instants the rule is read at, not the temple's own puja times, which every temple prints for itself.
The day itself
| What | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Shukla Dwitiyai from previous day 08:32 until next day 01:14 | then Shukla Thritiyai until next day 21:49 |
| Nakshatra | Punarvasu until 09:20 | then Pushya until next day 06:34 |
| Rahu kaal | 07:24 to 09:00 (1 h 37 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 10:37 to 12:13 (1 h 37 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 13:50 to 15:27 (1 h 37 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:48 to 12:39 (0 h 51 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 06:50 | moonset 20:01 |
For Monday, 5 July 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No fast. The day is one of the few on which the deities are seen outside the temple by anyone at all, which is the heart of it.
What is avoided
The Mahaprasad, once received, is never refused or treated as leftover, and no one is kept from the rope. Meat is avoided in homes that keep the day, and the images are not left without bhog or a lamp while they are away from the shrine.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Puri is the original; Ahmedabad, Kolkata and the ISKCON temples abroad keep the same day with their own chariots. Bengal keeps it at Mahesh in Serampore, the second oldest rath in the country, and puts out the jilipi stalls and the papad and the clay toys of the rath mela; the ulto rath, the return journey, is eight days later. The south does not keep it, though Tamil temples hold their own ther festivals on other days.
In other regions
- North India (the dates above)
- Puri is where the Hindi-speaking pilgrim goes, and Delhi, Varanasi, Prayagraj and many other towns take their own Jagannath out on a rath, Varanasi with a three-day fair at the crossing named after it; the ISKCON processions are the largest in the cities.
- Bengal
- Bengal keeps Rath at Mahesh in Serampore and at Guptipara, with the rath mela's jilipi, papad and clay toys and the ulto rath eight days later; it is also the day Kumartuli's image makers begin the frames for the Durga Puja, the kathamo puja.
- Gujarat
- Ahmedabad takes its three chariots out from the Jamalpur temple on the same tithi, the largest rath yatra outside Puri, and the city turns out along the route.
- Odisha
- Puri is the original and the largest: the three chariots are built new each year, the Gajapati sweeps the floor of each with a golden broom in the Chhera Pahanra, and the deities stay nine days at the Gundicha temple before the Bahuda return.
The dates above are the North India reckoning, because that is the calendar this key belongs to. Switch the tradition on the calendar page to see how another one dates the same day.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
रथ यात्रा की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएंRath Yatra ki hardik shubhkamnayein
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Sri Jagannath Temple, Puri 953 kmOdisha
The entry for this day names Puri. The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. The day the three deities of Puri, Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra, leave the temple and are drawn on three wooden chariots down the Bada Danda to the Gundicha temple, where they stay nine days before the return journey.
Temples of Jagannath near you
Not recorded for this day in particular: the nearest temples of the day's own gods, for a reader whose own temple is not listed above.
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Venkatakrishnan (Parthasarathy) with the arrow scars on his face
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · The eight forms of Lakshmi in shrines on four floors, facing the sea
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adhivyadhihara Bhaktha Anjaneyar, thirty-two feet tall from a single block of granite
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Neervanna Perumal below and Ranganathar on the hill, in four postures
Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.
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A temple is listed here only where the gazetteer's own line names this day, or where this day's own entry names the town, or where the day belongs to the ancestors or the nagas and the temple is recorded for that rite. Where neither table says anything, nothing is listed as kept for the day; where fewer than three are, the nearest temples of the day's own gods are added under a heading of their own.
Mantras
The prayers said with the day. Each opens with its words and meaning.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it.
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A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.