The festival is native to the state of Odisha but celebrated with joy in several other parts too
Sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik has created a beautiful sculpture of Lord Jagannath's Rath Yatra to pay homage to the mega annual event. Mr Pattnaik shared the beautiful artwork, created on the Puri beach, on his official Twitter handle on Friday.
"Jai Jagannath. On the auspicious occasion of the Rath Yatra. My Sand Art at Puri beach," the caption of the post read. It showed 125 chariots made of sand, a replica of the grand event that is celebrated with great pomp and joy in Odisha.
Mr Pattnaik also posted a special message through his art and wrote, "On this Rath Yatra, let us pledge to "Say no to single-use Plastic" and keep our environment clean."
While the festival is native to the state of Odisha, it is celebrated with pomp and joy in several other parts of the country.
Mr Pattnaik's post has received over 9,000 likes and hundreds of re-tweets since being shared this morning. Most of his followers and other Twitter users wrote "Jai Jagannath" as a mark of respect to the deity.
Ratha Yatra, which marks the nine-day sojourn of Lord Jagannath and his siblings at the Gundichha Temple, is held every year on the second day of the Shukla Paksha in June or July according to the Hindu almanac. This year's festival began on July 1.
Every year, three chariots are built for the event for Lord Jagannath, Devi Subhadra and Lord Balabhadra. Lakhs of devotees pull these chariots as the dieties march towards the Gundicha Temple.
President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Odisha Governor Ganeshi Lal, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and many other dignitaries greeted the people on the occasion.