- Title: INDIA-CHARIOT FESTIVAL Two killed and 20 injured at India chariot festival
- Date: 18th July 2015
- Summary: PURI, INDIA (JULY 18, 2015) (REUTERS) DEVOTEES CONGREGATING IN FRONT OF THE CHARIOTS OF LORD JAGANNATH, HIS SISTER SUBHADRA AND BROTHER BALBHADRA DEVOTEES BRINGING OUT THE IDOLS OF GODS AMID CLASHING OF CYMBALS AND CHANTING OF HYMNS DEVOTEES CARRYING THE IDOL OF GOD IDOL OF GOD BALBHADRA BEING MOVED INTO ITS DESIGNATED CHARIOT (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) HINDU HOLY MAN VISITING PU
- Embargoed: 2nd August 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: India
- Country: India
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA4ZAV48BA6BBZIGR8NAGQ6FZR5
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: At least two people were killed and more than 20 injured in a stampede as security forces struggled to control a crowd of over a million Hindu devotees gathered for the annual chariot festival in the eastern Indian coastal town of Puri on Saturday (July 18).
Security forces were struggling to control the crowd.
The injured were taken to local hospitals and those in a serious condition were taken to a medical college in the city of Cuttack, about 80 kilometres from Puri.
Nearly two million devotees streamed into Puri for the annual festival of Hindu god Jagannath with at least one million congregating on the main road leading to the Jagannath temple.
The festival has been celebrated for the last 1,000 years.
Devotees traditionally pull three giant chariots, nearly 45 feet high, with thick ropes amid frenzied chanting of hymns.
"It is believed that those who come to participate in the chariot journey of Lord Jagannath and manage to get a glimpse of his idol, by this very act they get salvation from the cycle of life and death," said Ram Krishna Das, a Hindu holy man visiting the festival.
It commemorates Lord Krishna's return to his home in Vrindavan, after a long period. The English word "juggernaut" is derived from Jagannath's chariot.
"Jagannath is a live God, it is believed that a part of Krishna resides inside the soul of Lord Jagannath," said Sanjay Kumar Mishra, a judge at Odisha province high court who attended the festival.
According to Hindu believers, Lord Jagannath is the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the Preserver, one of the trinity of the Hindu pantheon. The other two are Brahma, the Creator and Shiva, the Destroyer.
"It is a place and an event that anyone who comes here, does not go back hungry. God Jagannath provides food for everyone and a visit here washes all of your sins," said Jagannath Kundiya, one of the priests at the Jagannath temple.
A glimpse of Lord Jagannath on the chariot is considered to be very auspicious and saints, poets and scriptures have repeatedly glorified the sanctity of the festival.
But for some people the overcrowded festival turned into tragedy as two women died.
Twenty-seven people were killed and 40 injured earlier this week in a stampede in the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh as crowds surged to bathe in the Godavari River on the first day of a religious festival held once every 144 years.
Stampedes are not uncommon at India's large religious festivals, where crowds routinely number in the tens of millions. In 2013, 36 pilgrims were killed during a stampede at a train station during a festival in northern India. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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