In a Gaudiya Vaishnava telling, Subhadra guards the door while Rohini tells Krishna's queens about Vrindavan; she and her brothers are so absorbed that all three take the round-eyed, handless forms of Puri, and Krishna promises Narada to show them there. At Puri she rides between her brothers on her chariot Darpadalana, with Arjuna as its charioteer.
East India · Bengal and PuriVaishnavaGaudiya Vaishnava
The queens of Dwaraka notice that Krishna's mind is still in Vrindavan and ask Rohini, who lived there through his childhood, to tell them about it. She agrees only if Krishna and Balarama will not hear, and sets Subhadra at the door with her arms across it while the brothers are at the Sudharma hall. Subhadra becomes lost in the telling. The brothers, drawn home, come and stand one on each side of her, and none of the three notices the others. As they listen their eyes grow wide and their hands and feet draw in. Narada arrives, the three return to themselves, and he dances with joy and asks that the form be shown to the world; Krishna promises that the three will be seen that way at Puri.
On the morning of the Rath Yatra the gods are brought out in the Pahandi: Sudarshana first, then Balabhadra, then Subhadra, carried in the Sunya Pahandi with her face to the sky, then Jagannath. Her chariot is Darpadalana, the trampler of pride: twelve wheels, red and black for the Goddess, four red horses Rochika, Mochika, Jita and Aparajita, the rope Swarnachuda Nagini, nine goddesses on its sides including Vimala, Jayadurga as guardian, Sudarshana with her and Arjuna as charioteer. After the king sweeps the chariots, Balabhadra's rolls first, then hers, then Jagannath's, to the Gundicha temple for a week. Some say the festival began with Subhadra's wish to see the city; Swaminarayan temples tell of Krishna and Balarama taking her through Dwaraka to show it to her.
Sources: The Story Behind Lord Jagannath's Form (mayapur.com); Reason behind Lord Jagannath's unique form (ISKCON Desire Tree); Lecture on Jagannath (bvmlu.org); Rath Jatra: the chariots (Government of Odisha); Ratha Yatra (Puri) (Wikipedia); PTI, Lord Jagannath's Bahuda Yatra (The Week, 5 July 2025); Ratha Yatra festival transforms Port of Spain streets (Trinidad Guardian, 16 July 2025); Rath Yatra (Swaminarayan temple, Bolton)