Imphal, June 20: Due to the ongoing ethnic violence in Manipur, the state on Tuesday skipped the annual Rath Yatra procession with chariots.

Rath Yatra has been a public festival for nearly 200 years. The Rath Yatra of Lord Jagarnath started on Tuesday

Several religious organisations, like Brahma Sabha and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) also did not hold any public procession due to the prevailing situation.

The Shree Shree Govindaji Temple Board, Manipur’s apex body that holds the annual Rath Yatra locally known as Kang Chingba, decided against holding any public event, while rituals will take place only inside temple premises across the state.

In 1780, the celebration has first commenced at the royal palace during the rule of Maharaja Bhagyachandra and it became a public annual carnival in 1832 during the reign of Maharaja Gambhir Singh (who ruled the erstwhile princely state from 1825 to 1834) after the Shree Shree Govindaji temple was built.

On the occasion of the Rath Yatra, the idols of Lord Jagannath and his two siblings — Devi Subhadra and Lord Balabhadra — are taken out of Shree Shree Govindaji Temple at the palace compound in Imphal and place them on a wooden nearly 30-foot tall chariot, which is then pulled by hundreds of devotees for a ceremonial procession.

The violence has claimed more than 120 lives and left more than 60,000 people displaced since it first broke out on May 3.

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