Rath Yatra: Pulling of chariots resumes amid chants of 'Jay Jagannath'
The annual Rath Yatra festival in Puri, India, resumed on Friday after a delay in rituals caused the chariots to halt overnight. Hundreds of thousands of devotees gathered to participate in the traditional pulling of the chariots.
Why it matters
The Rath Yatra is a major cultural and religious event in India, drawing massive crowds and requiring significant logistical coordination by temple and government authorities.
The chariots of Lord Jagannath and his siblings resumed their journey to the Gundicha Temple in Odisha's Puri on Friday (July 17, 2026), as part of the annual Rath Yatra festival that commenced a day ago, officials said.
None of the three chariots had reached the temple, around 2.6 km away from the 12th-century Shree Jagannath Temple, due to a delay in the 'Pahandi' rituals on Thursday (July 16, 2026), they said. The deities remained on the chariots overnight. Amid chants of 'Jay Jagannath', lakhs of devotees started pulling the chariots of the trinity—Lord Balabhadra, Devi Subhadra and Lord Jagannath—this morning.
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