Bhubaneswar: Chhatisa Nijog, a confederation of servitors of Jagannath temple in Puri, on Monday approved the ritual schedule for ensuing Rath Yatra on July 7. According to the plan, the chariots will be pulled at around 5 pm, which is about an hour later compared to the festival held the previous year.
This year, the rituals of Nabajouban Darshan and Netra Utsav will be performed on the same day when the chariots of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra will be pulled.Nabajouban Darshan and Netra Utsav are usually observed on two separate days preceding Rath Yatra.
It was last in 1971 when we had observed the rituals of Nabajouban Darshan and Netra Utsav on the Rath Yatra day. “We are going to follow the same procedures this time. Servitors have assured us that they would perform the rituals in time,” said chief administrator of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) Vir Vikram Yadav.
As per the schedule, Pahandi ritual where the idols of the deities would be brought from the temple to the chariots would be held between 1.10 pm and 2.30 pm. Last year, pahandi started around 8 am. “We expect that the servitors would complete the Pahandi ritual by 2.30 pm. If chariot pulling starts around 5 pm, it will be halted around 6 pm. The chariot pulling would resume the next morning. In 1971, chariot pulling started around 7 pm. There have been several occasions in the past when chariots were pulled the day after Rath Yatra,” said Ramakrushna Dasmohapatra, a servitor.
The temple administration is unlikely to allow devotees to have darshan of the deities on Nabajouban darshan inside the temple.

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