AGARTALA, June 5 (TIWN): Along with the whole Nation, Agartala on Friday observed the holy Snana Utsav of Lord Jaganath at Jaganath Temple.

However, due to lockdown and Corona-virus outbreak, social distances were maintained during the festival inside temple premises.

The Utsav has been celebrated with pomp and deity at the premises of the temple.

The idols of the deities are brought out in a grand procession from the garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum) to the Snana Bedi (bathing platform).

Further, occasion started when the deities were bathed with pure milk, curd, ghee, honey and with 108 pots, of ritually purified water drawn from the northern water body of the temple.  

After the completion of the rituals the idols of the deities were shifted to their own kaksha (room), and will remain in isolation till the day before the Rath Yatra.During this period, no public worship is performed. Later on, the Gods come out of the temple in a colourful procession to board their respective Chariots and thereafter begins the journey known as "Ratha Yatra'.

The Snana Yatra is a bathing festival celebrated on the Purnima (full moon day) of the Hindu month of Jyeshtha. It is an important festival of the Jagannath devotees. This is the first occasion in the year as per the Hindu calendar, when the deities Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra are brought out from the Jagannath Temple and taken in a procession to the Snana Bedi. There they are ceremonially bathed and decorated for a public audience with the devotees.