DHAKA, June 27 — Hindu devotees in Bangladesh began the annual celebration of the Rath Yatra festival on Friday, with grand processions and devotional programs led by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) under tight security arrangements.
The nine-day celebration, centred around the worship of Lord Jagannath, his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra, is considered one of the most important festivals in the Hindu calendar. As in previous years, ISKCON organised vibrant events in Dhaka, including processions, devotional singing, and religious discourses.
“Rath Yatra is a celebration of harmony, faith and joyful chanting of Harinama,” said ISKCON priests in Dhaka, where thousands gathered to pull the ceremonial chariot through the capital’s streets.
The chariot procession in Dhaka passed through a traditional route beginning from ISKCON’s Swamibag Ashram. It moved through Joykali Temple, Ittefaq Intersection, Shapla Chattar, Dainik Bangla Intersection, the north side of Baitul Mukarram Mosque, Paltan Intersection, Press Club, Kadam Foara, High Court Shrine, Doel Chattar, Shaheed Minar, Jagannath Hall, and Palasi Intersection, before concluding at the historic Dhakeshwari Temple.
The return procession will follow the same route in reverse on Saturday, July 5, starting at the same time.
To ensure public safety and smooth traffic flow, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Traffic Division advised commuters and transport operators to avoid these routes between 2 PM and 6 PM on both June 27 and July 5. “All necessary security measures have been taken to facilitate peaceful celebrations,” police officials said.
While the main Rath Yatra festival is celebrated with grandeur in Puri, Odisha—where the chariots of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra are newly constructed each year—the celebration in Bangladesh reflects the strong cultural and spiritual ties of Bengali Hindus to this ancient tradition.
The Dhaka procession followed closely after the observance of Snana Purnima in Puri, during which the three deities were ritually bathed with 108 pitchers of holy water—a ceremonial prelude to the Rath Yatra that marks the deities’ brief retreat from public view, known as Anavasar, before their grand return on chariots.
