Soaking themselves in religious fervor and drizzling, lakhs of devotees across Tripura along with other parts of the country celebrated the festival of ‘Rath Yatra’, Lord Jagannath's annual visit to his aunt's house with great enthusiasm on Sunday.

Chanting "Jai Jagannath" and "Hare Krishna”, a huge number of devotees thronged the roads and went up to the rooftops to have a glimpse of their beloved lords, when several chariots of Lord Jagannath passed through the streets of Agartala.

Thousands of devotees gathered at Jagannath temple in Agartala to participate in the festival and to pull the Raths of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balaram and Goddess Shubhadra. The Rath pulling ceremony began on Sunday afternoon from the premises of Jagannath temple in Agartala and passed through various thoroughfares of Agartala amidst huge crowds and tight security by maintaining all regulations by government to avoid any untoward incident like last year’s ‘Ulto Rath Yatra’ in Kumarghat.

The centre-piece of the celebrations were colourful chariot processions brought out by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) at Agartala, which drew huge crowds of devotees cutting across religious, social and economic barriers.

The ISKCON Rath Yatra in Agartala was inaugurated by Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha accompanied Minister Tinku Roy along other dignitaries by symbolically tugging at the ropes and following the ritual of sweeping the road with a golden broom.

Inaugurating the ' ‘Rathyatra Utsav '' of ISKCON, Chief Minister prayed for the welfare of state’s people and praised the role of ISKCON for spreading education in rural and urban areas of the state.

Apart from two major Rath pulling ceremonies by Jagannath temple and ISKCON temple, the Laxmi Narayan temple in Agartala also celebrated the festival and moved the chariot of Lord Jagannath across the city with bands of Tripura police. In Agartala, several religious communities including Manipuri and other temples based in the city also observed the festival with religious fervour amidst massive crowds.

The Rath Yatra festival of Melaghar under Sepahijala district is one of the most attractive festivals of the state and thousands of devotees across the state gathered at Melaghar to celebrate the festival. The Rath Yatra festival in Melaghar started in the year 1964, since then it is the most crowded festival of the state. Like previous years, this year also the giant chariot of Lord Jagannath was pulled by an elephant.

Reports from Udaipur, Khowai, Shantirbazar, Belonia, Dharmanagar and other parts of the state, the festival also celebrated with religious fervour, where thousands of devotees gathered to pull the chariots of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balaram and Goddess Shubhadra.

Young boys with their tiny Rath from suburb areas of Agartala also came out with their chariot of Lord Jagannath and moved through various corners of Agartala city with enthusiasm. The tiny Rath, made by young boys also moved in other subdivisional parts of the state.  So far, no untoward incident reported from any parts of the state and the festival passed off peacefully.