BHUBANESWAR: Homebound journey or Bahuda Yatra of the deities of Jagannath temple in Puri was smooth on Sunday even as the shadow of Saturday’s devastating rain, subsequent waterlogging and rain forecast for the next day loomed large. The Shree Jagannath temple administration (SJTA) claimed to have scripted a success story by facilitating the completion of all rituals of Bahuda Yatra in record time, paving the way for early arrival of chariots outside Jagannath temple.In the previous years, chariots used to reach Jagannath temple from Gundicha temple after 7 pm. On Sunday, the three chariots reached by 5.30 pm.Chief minister Naveen Patnaik was all praise for servitors, SJTA and police for smooth conduct of July 14 Rath Yatra and July 22 Bahuda Yatra.Unfazed by Saturday’s cloudburst across Odisha , a sea of humanity turned up at Puri on Sunday to bid adieu to Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra at Gundicha temple, birthplace of the sibling deities. On July 14, the deities came to Gundicha temple on the occasion of Rath Yatra. Devotees and officials heaved a sigh of relief as the sky did not open up. “I was apprehensive about smooth chariot pulling as the Grand Road was waterlogged on Saturday. Luckily, it did not rain on Bahuda Yatra. We were fortunate to have caught the glimpse of the deities,” said Shatrughna Dey, a devotee from Kolkata.The three deities boarded their respective chariots in scheduled time after completion of a set of rituals inside the Gundicha temple. The chariots rolled on the three-km Grand Road towards Jagannath temple soon after Gajapati Dibyasigha Deb performed his conventional ‘sweeping ritual’ (chhera pahanra) on decks of the chariots.Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, who was appointed as chief administrator of SJTA just a month before Rath Yatra, praised the servitors for timely and disciplined conduct of the nine-day car festival. “We are now making arrangements for Monday’s Suna Besha festival of the deities. The sibling deities will don huge quantities of gold ornaments on their chariots and give darshan to devotees,” Mohapatra said.Director general of police R P Sharma said adequate security arrangements have been planned for hassle-free Suna Besha on Monday. “We successfully managed lakhs of crowd on Rath Yatra and Bahuda Yatra. Similar security and crowd control measures will be taken for Suna Besh,” Sharma TOI.

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