Jatni

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Jatani or Khurda Road

Jatani or Jatni or Khurda Road is a city and a municipality in Khordha district in the Indian state of Orissa. It is close to Bhubaneswar, the state capital of Orissa. Jatni town is also known as 'Khurda Road' in railways. Jatani town is named from the Goddess Maa Jateeani the temple near Patrapada. But it is unfortunate to say that the Jateani temple is laid misearable at site. It is an important railway junction and gateway to the vast tribal hinterland. It has developed as a commercial hub with a number of educational and other institutions. Jatni is famous for Ganesh Chaturti and lots of tourists come here during the festival.The population of Jatani consists mostly of Oriya & Telugu speaking peoples. Others like Muslim, Marwari, Gujrati, Bengali are also present in good numbers. Good number of Temples, Masjid & Churches are present here. It is also the home of highest number of Anglo-Indian people in Orissa. A variety of communities live here because Jatani has been a very important railway station since the British rule. A major chunk of people living here are railway employees.

Jatni is famous for its celebration of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. Jatni is very crowded during Ganesh Puja as people from nearby places visit in huge numbers for the occasion. People of Jatani maintain communal harmony. Eid ul-Fitr & Christmas Day are also celebrated with religious fervour.

Diwali and Holi are celebrated here with much fanfare.The firecracker shops in Jatani draw a large number of buyers from nearby places like Bhubaneswar,Khurda, Puri etc reason being there are nearby villages which indulge in making crackers half a year like Padanpur.The success of these shops can be attributed to setting up once again make-shift shops during other festivals like Raksha Bandhan, New Year. Apart from these shops, one 40+yrs famous shop is there named Mohanty Book Stall(co-founder is Mr. Satrughna Mohanty).

It's a mini India of its own but you can always find some glimpse of evaporating traditions here. Be it the Anglo-Indians celebrating Christmas in open or the Marwari's Garbha in closely guarded community atmosphere or the Bhogi festival of Telugus.

Several weeklong festivals for the goddess Bhagabati Devi are also celebrated mostly in Railway sareas esp. Locoline and Retang colony.On the last day,the procession is carried out in public,followed by a carnival depicting stories from Hindu mythologies like Ramayana, Mahabharath etc.

The town is spread across various Railways settlements akin colonies like Traffic colony, New colony, Accounts colony, Retang colony, Loco line surrounded by private townships like Nuagaun, Hata bazaar, Raja bazaar, Railway Market, Sitaram chhack, Thaana Chhack, Bacharapatna (chhack is the local equivalent for Cross,similarly bazaar is the local equivalent for Market).
Temples

There are very good and old temples in around Jatani. Among old temples are Budhapada (Lord Shiva). This is a very old temple and devotees from different places in and around of Jatni visit the temple. Other temples are Chotta Somnath Mandira situated at Kudiary, God Venkateswara Temple, and Maa Damunei or Uttarayani Temple, Maa Mangala and Taleshwar(God Shiva) situated at Barapada.

Dola Jatra is celebrated in Harirajpur (4 km away from Jatni town), which takes place on the 5th day following Holi. It is a very big local gathering where idols of gods from different parts of the district are brought in palaki (palaquin) and placed in jatra(fair). People visit and offer their prayers to gods by applying different colours of Holi.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jatani
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   20°10'5"N   85°42'24"E

Comments

  • This is the miniworld.
  • jatni is also called the bombay of odisha.
  • good cosmopolitan town.
This article was last modified 12 years ago