The lord of the world · Puri, Odisha
Jagannath
Lord Jagannath, the lord of the world, is Lord Krishna as he is worshipped at Puri in Odisha, with his brother Balabhadra and his sister Subhadra. Recite the Jagannath Ashtakam, meet the three chariots of the Rath Yatra, and see when his days fall in your city.
- His day
- Thursday
- Next: Thu 5 Nov
- Next Jagannath day
- Ekadashi
- In 4 days · Thu 5 Nov
Jagannath · 16 wheels · about 45 feet
Nandighosha
The chariot of Lord Jagannath, the tallest of the three and the last in the procession: about 45 feet high on sixteen wheels, under a canopy of red and yellow cloth. Its name is often read as the one with a joyful sound.
About Jagannath →Balabhadra · 14 wheels · about 44 feet
Taladhwaja
The chariot of Balabhadra, the elder brother, which leads the procession: about 44 feet high on fourteen wheels, in red and bluish green. Its name means the one with the palm-tree flag, the tala, the emblem of Balarama.
Subhadra · 12 wheels · about 43 feet
Darpadalana
The chariot of Subhadra, which rolls between her brothers’ chariots: about 43 feet high on twelve wheels, in red and black. Its name means the one that crushes pride, and Sudarshana, the discus, rides with her.
Tap a chariot, or its name, to see whose it is, its colours and its wheels. They roll in this order every year, Balabhadra’s first and Jagannath’s last; each is drawn to its height, with the wheels along one side.
His days, in your city
Dates and puja times for the city you pick
For New Delhi
Lord Vishnu’s fast, twice a month; at Puri the Ekadashi after the Rath Yatra brings Suna Besha, the three dressed in gold on their chariots.
- Every Thursday
- Thu 5 NovHis day of the week
- Purnima
- Tue 24 Nov
- Akshaya Tritiya
- Sun 9 May5:35 am to 9:04 am
- Rath Yatra
- Mon 5 July
- Krishna Janmashtami
- Wed 25 Aug12:01 am to 12:46 am, 26 Aug
Recite the Jagannath Ashtakam
कदाचित्कालिन्दीतटविपिनसङ्गीतकवरो
मुदा गोपीनारीवदनकमलास्वादमधुपः ।
Kadachit kalindi tata vipina sangitaka varo,
Muda gopi nari vadana kamalasvada madhupah,
At times he fills the groves on the bank of the Yamuna with music, and like a bee he joyfully drinks in the beauty of the lotus faces of the cowherd women.
कभी वे यमुना के तट पर वन को मधुर संगीत से भर देते हैं, और भौंरे की तरह आनन्द से गोपियों के कमल जैसे मुखों का रस लेते हैं।
Eight verses by Adi Shankaracharya, who founded the Govardhana Matha at Puri, each ending with the same wish: may Lord Jagannath, the Lord, come before my eyes.
Read the whole AshtakamHis prayers
- Jagannath AshtakamEight verses by Adi Shankaracharya, in SanskritRead
- Jagannath AartiSung at the end of pujaSoon
- Jagannath PranamaNilachala nivasaya, the verse of greetingSoon
- 108 names of JagannathFor japa with a malaSoon
A simple puja at home
Lord Jagannath is worshipped every day at Puri, and many families keep Thursday or Ekadashi for him at home. A short, joyful puja is enough. Follow your family’s way where it differs.
- Bathe, and set up a picture of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra.
- Light a ghee lamp and incense before them.
- Offer tulsi leaves, flowers and a little sandal paste.
- Offer simple food as bhog: rice, dal or a sweet.
- Recite the Jagannath Ashtakam, and call out “Jai Jagannath”.
- Share the bhog with the family as prasad.
What you need
- A picture of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra
- A ghee lamp and incense
- Tulsi leaves and flowers
- Sandal paste
- Simple food or a sweet as bhog
Prayers for the puja
Who is Jagannath
Lord Jagannath, the lord of the world, is worshipped at Puri in Odisha with his elder brother Balabhadra and his younger sister Subhadra. Devotees see him as Lord Krishna and as Lord Vishnu. Beside them stands Sudarshana, Vishnu’s discus, as a wooden pillar, and the four sit together on the ratna vedi, the jewelled platform, in the temple.
The three are carved from neem wood and painted: Lord Jagannath dark, Balabhadra white and Subhadra yellow. They have large round eyes and short arms without hands, as in the story of the carpenter who was disturbed before he could finish. Many see in the unfinished form a sign that the divine is beyond any shape.
Once a year, at the Rath Yatra in the month of Ashadha, the three leave the temple on their great chariots so that everyone can see them. At home many keep Thursday, the day of Lord Vishnu, and Ekadashi for him, recite the Jagannath Ashtakam, and call out “Jai Jagannath”.
- Jagannatha the lord of the world, in Sanskrit
- Purushottama the supreme person; Puri is Purushottama Kshetra
- Nila Madhava the blue Madhava, as he was first worshipped
- Darubrahma the divine in wood
- Mahaprabhu the great lord
- Kalia the dark one, as many in Odisha call him
जगन्नाथः स्वामी नयनपथगामी भवतु मे
Jagannathah svami nayana patha gami bhavatu me
May Jagannath, the Lord, come before my eyes: the line that closes every verse of the Jagannath Ashtakam, often said on its own as a prayer for his darshan.
जगन्नाथ स्वामी मेरी आँखों के सामने प्रकट हों: यह पंक्ति जगन्नाथ अष्टकम के हर श्लोक के अन्त में आती है, और कई लोग उनके दर्शन की प्रार्थना में इसे अकेले भी बोलते हैं।
हर त्वं संसारं द्रुततरमसारं सुरपते
हर त्वं पापानां विततिमपरां यादवपते ।
Hara tvam samsaram drutataram asaram surapate,
Hara tvam papanam vitatim aparam yadavapate.
Lord of the gods, take away quickly this empty round of worldly life; Lord of the Yadavas, take away the endless heap of my sins.
हे देवताओं के स्वामी, इस सारहीन संसार के बन्धन को जल्दी हर लीजिए; हे यादवों के स्वामी, मेरे पापों के अपार ढेर को हर लीजिए।
The Rath Yatra
From the building of the chariots to the return home
Once a year, on the second day of the bright half of Ashadha, in June or July, Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra come out of their temple to the people. The Rath Yatra is the heart of a festival season that starts about two months before, in the order below.
April or May
Akshaya Tritiya
The carpenters begin the three chariots, made new every year from wood brought for them, and the Chandan Yatra, the sandal festival, begins.
The full moon of Jyeshtha
Snana Purnima
The three are brought out to the bathing platform and bathed with 108 pots of water, in front of the crowds.
About two weeks
Anasara
After the bath they are said to fall ill, and rest out of sight, cared for with herbal medicines. Pilgrims see painted cloths in their place, and many visit the Alarnath temple at Brahmagiri.
Ashadha, the second day of the bright half
Rath Yatra
The three are carried out to their chariots. The Gajapati king of Puri sweeps each chariot with a golden broom, the Chhera Pahanra, and the crowds pull them along the Bada Danda, the Grand Road, to the Gundicha temple.
The fifth day
Hera Panchami
Goddess Lakshmi, left behind at the temple, goes to the Gundicha temple to look for Lord Jagannath and, in the Puri telling, has a piece of his chariot broken in her displeasure.
The tenth day
Bahuda Yatra
The chariots come back, pausing at the Mausi Maa temple, the shrine of his aunt, where the three are offered poda pitha, a baked rice cake.
Ekadashi, the next day
Suna Besha
The three are dressed in gold on their chariots outside the temple, and the crowds come to see them shining.
A day or two later
Niladri Bije
They go back in to the ratna vedi. In the Puri telling Goddess Lakshmi shuts the door on Lord Jagannath until he wins her over with rasagola.
The dates follow the Puri temple’s own calendar. Rath Yatras in other cities keep the same day, with their own customs.
The customs of Puri
As the temple keeps them
The Shree Jagannath Temple stands on Nilachala, the blue hill, near the sea at Puri. It was begun in the twelfth century under King Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva of the Eastern Ganga line, and Puri is one of the four dhams, the holy places at the four corners of India.
Mahaprasad
Food for the three is cooked every day in the temple kitchen, one of the largest in the world, in earthen pots stacked over wood fires. It is offered to Lord Jagannath and then to Goddess Bimala in her shrine in the temple, and becomes Mahaprasad, the great offering. Pilgrims buy it at the Ananda Bazar inside the temple and share it, by tradition, without any divide of caste.
Nabakalebara
In some years with an extra month of Ashadha, about every twelve to nineteen years, the wooden forms are made anew. Neem trees are chosen by signs the tradition lays down, new forms are carved, and the sacred essence of the old forms is moved into the new ones in secret. The last Nabakalebara was in 2015.
The daily flag
Every day a servitor climbs the outside of the main tower to change the flags on the Nila Chakra, the wheel at its top, a custom kept without a break for centuries.
Who may enter
Only Hindus may enter the temple: this is the temple’s rule. Everyone can see Patitapabana, a form of Lord Jagannath at the Lion Gate set there so that all may have his darshan, and everyone can see the three on their chariots at the Rath Yatra.
What his symbols mean
The large round eyes
Wide open and never closing: the lord who watches over the whole world, and looks at every devotee at once.
The unfinished form
No hands and no feet, as the carpenter left them: a reminder that the divine does not need a finished body to reach out.
The wood, daru
The forms are made of neem wood and are renewed in the Nabakalebara: the body changes, the presence within it stays.
The Nila Chakra
The wheel of eight metals at the top of the temple, seen from all over Puri. Seeing it from afar is counted as his darshan.
The flag, Patitapabana
The flag on the Nila Chakra, changed every day: its name means the one who lifts up the fallen.
The chariots
Built new each year and pulled by thousands: the lord coming out of his temple to meet his people.
His stories
Across India
Odisha
Lord Jagannath is at the heart of Odia life: almost every village has his shrine, Rath Yatras are held across the state, and pilgrims walk to Puri for the Rath Yatra and Snana Purnima.
West Bengal
At Mahesh near Serampore a Rath Yatra said to be among the oldest in Bengal is held every year. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who spent his last years at Puri, made the chariot festival dear to Bengal’s Vaishnavas.
Gujarat
Ahmedabad’s Rath Yatra sets out from the Jagannath temple at Jamalpur and winds through the old city, one of the largest chariot processions in India.
Jharkhand
At Jagannathpur in Ranchi, a temple built on a hill in 1691 holds a Rath Yatra and a great fair every year.
Around the world
Since 1967, when ISKCON pulled a chariot through San Francisco, Rath Yatras have been held in cities across the world, from London to New York, and Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra are worshipped in many ISKCON temples.
His temples
- Shree Jagannath TemplePuri, Odisha
- Gundicha TemplePuri, Odisha
- Alarnath TempleBrahmagiri, Puri, Odisha
- Jagannathji Temple, JamalpurAhmedabad, Gujarat
- Mahesh Jagannath TempleSerampore, Hooghly, West Bengal
- Jagannathpur TempleRanchi, Jharkhand
- Shri Jagannath MandirHauz Khas, New Delhi
Questions
Who is Lord Jagannath?
Lord Jagannath, the lord of the world, is Lord Krishna, and Lord Vishnu, as he is worshipped at Puri in Odisha, with his brother Balabhadra and his sister Subhadra. The three are carved from neem wood, and are renewed in the Nabakalebara.
When is the Rath Yatra?
On the second day of the bright half of Ashadha, in June or July. The chariots go to the Gundicha temple and come back on the tenth day, in the Bahuda Yatra.
Why are Lord Jagannath’s eyes so large, and why has he no hands?
In the story the carpenter was disturbed before he could finish, and the forms were worshipped as they were. Devotees say the large round eyes never close, so he watches over everyone.
What is Mahaprasad?
The food cooked in the temple kitchen at Puri and offered to Lord Jagannath and to Goddess Bimala. Pilgrims buy it at the Ananda Bazar in the temple and share it.
Can everyone enter the Jagannath temple at Puri?
Only Hindus may enter: this is the temple’s rule. Everyone can have darshan of Patitapabana at the Lion Gate, and of the three on their chariots at the Rath Yatra.
What is Nabakalebara?
The renewal of the wooden forms, in some years with an extra month of Ashadha, about every twelve to nineteen years. The last was in 2015.
Which day is Lord Jagannath’s?
At Puri he is worshipped every day. At home many keep Thursday, the day of Lord Vishnu, and Ekadashi for him, and recite the Jagannath Ashtakam.