On the dazzlingly bright afternoon of 3^rd October 2015, the chariot of Their Lordships Jagannath Baladev and Subhadra rolled down the roads of Old Kanpur, India, with hundreds of devotees dancing, with all grandeur. 

The rainbow-like entourage of devotees surrounding the chariot chanted and danced their way from Phool Bagh through the marketplace and then via the busy roads back to Phool Bagh. Lord Jagannath looked captivating like a splendid dark jewel adorned with multi-coloured ambrosial flowers. Rath Yatra or the Chariot Festival is celebrated for over centuries in India and is one of the oldest carnivals in the world. However, for the first time, the entire city of Kanpur witnessed the majestic Chariot Festival after the inauguration of the brand new temple.

Devotees from Vrindavan, Varanasi, Patna and Lucknow participated in the auspicious Rath Yatra this year at Kanpur.

People enthusiastically participated in the chariot pulling fiesta. Simultaneously young students of different colleges of Kanpur earnestly distributed books on the roads and marketplace of Kanpur. Locals from different nook and corner, from the windows and balconies of their houses peeped out merely to catch a glimpse of Their Lordships. It seemed like with the fading sun’s rays the roads of Kanpur were smeared with the brilliant colours of devotees lead by Their Lordships in the effulgent chariot.

In a span of around 5 hours, Kanpur jousted to the euphoria of the holy names and bathed in the mercy of Their Lordships. At the end of the fiesta people relished Lord Jagannath’s sumptuous Prasadam.

The entire family of ISKCON Kanpur headed by Devakinandana Das, Prem Harinam Das, Amrtesa Krsna Das and the devotees worked at sync to conduct the entire carnival in a smooth way.