Mahesh Jagannath temple draws thousands of devotees on Rath Yatra
The Statesman | 8 July 2024
The divine journey of Lord Jagannath which commenced 628 years back in Mahesh Serampore, took place once again today. Elaborate measures and steps were taken by the police and civic administration to conduct the Rath Yatra free from any kind of untoward incidents .
The Mahesh Serampore Rath Yatra holds the second place after the famed Rath Yatra Puri in Orissa. Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Sri Chaitanya Maha Prabhu, Saradha Devi and other holy persons visited Mahesh on the occasion of Rath yatra to obtain the divine blessing of Lord Jagannath Dhrubananda Bramachari 628 years back had the vision of Lord Jagannath at Puri who asked him to carve out the images of the lord himself, Balaram and Subhadra out of a neem tree trunk sent by him on the banks of river Ganges at Mahesh, known as Jagannath ghat. In due time the deities found their place in a magnificent temple in Mahesh, well known as Mahesh Jagannath temple.
The chariot initially used for the Lord’s annual Rath Yatra was made out of wood but with the passage of time an iron-framed chariot was constructed by the Martin Burn Company at the special initiative of Krishna Chandra Basu, the then the Hooghly District dewan under the East India Company, a resident of Shyambazar. The chariot for Subhadra, Balaram and Lord Jagannath weighs 125 tons having a height of 50 foot. With 12 giant iron wheels rolls a distance of 1 km along the G.T Road from Mahesh to Mahesh Gundicha Bari or ‘Mashir Bari’, for the Lord’s visit to his aunt (Mashi) pulled by two parallel thick ropes by hundreds of devotees. At the special initiative taken by the state chief minister Mamata Banerjee the Mahesh Jagannath temple has been completely