CUTTACK: Curtains were brought down on the five-day Durga Puja festival with denizens of the millennium city bidding adieu to the Mother Goddess on Friday. The idols of the Goddess were taken to the Devi Gada Ghat for immersion in all spectacle and grandeur that is unique to the ceremony in Cuttack city. Lakhs of people flowed to the streets and thoroughfares as the line of the procession for the Puja Mandaps went past. By evening around 35 of the over 154 idols had been immersed. The immersion of the idols would stretch through the night well into Saturday. Around 16 idols from the different Bengali community puja mandaps, private household pujas and Government institution organised pujas like the OSRTC and Railways had been immersed on Thursday, the Dussehra itself. The magnificence of immersion ceremony in Cuttack supercedes the splendour of the Durga Puja in the mandaps. The idols are shifted from the mandaps along with the medhas (backdrops) in all their resplendent glory to the makeshift chariots converted from automobile chassis and pulled along to the Ghat for immersion. The idols are accompanied by the locals where the Mandaps belong and led by colourful dance and music all through the route. With the weather being pleasant throughout the day, the sultry conditions cooling off by a cloud cover and a brief drizzle in the afternoon, people came out in large numbers to witness the ceremony. As the processions went by with musical bands, traditional folk performances, blowing of conches and dance, people came out in large numbers to witness the spectacle. The whole stretch of the thoroughfares the processions went by was converted into a virtual fair with people engaging in merrymaking, feasting while paying obeisance to the departing deity. The processions were taken out on the customary route through Ranihat, Mangalabag, Buxi Bazaar, Gourishankar Park through Purighat to the Devi Gada for immersion. They stopped by the puja mandaps en-route, where they were given rousing reception and felicitation by their counterparts. The melan or traditional get together of the medhas was also held at Chandni Chowk before the processions proceeded to the ghat to immerse the idols of Goddess Durga and Hara Parbati.The ceremony had been peaceful till last reports came in. Elaborate security arrangements had been put in place by Commissionerate police to ensure smooth conduct of the ceremony.
Comments
0 comment