ROURKELA: A sea of devotees started pouring in at the Vedvyas temple at Rourkela from the wee hours of Friday on the occasion of Maha Shivaratri. Other Shiva temples of the city and Sundargarh district too witnessed huge crowd all through the day.
The Vedvyas temple complex located along the south flowing river Brahmani, formed by the confluence of Sankh and Koel rivers, has been the most sought after destination for devotees. Elaborate security arrangements had been made for smooth darshan of the devotees.
Sources in Vedvyas Trust Board (VTB) said, above 50,000 devotees had offered their prayers by late afternoon and the figure was likely to touch a lakh by midnight.
Thousands of fasting devotees were sitting in long rows by lighting diyas at the scenic site of Vedyas temple while others were waiting in serpentine queues to worship Lord Shiva by pouring water fetched from river Brahmani.
Vedvyas Trust Board secretary Anupam Ray said, the time for lifting the ‘Mahadeep’ has been set at around 3.10 am.
Sundargarh District Collector BS Poonia is scheduled to raise the ‘Mahadeep’ at Chandrasekhar temple while Chief Executive Officer of Rourkela Steel Plant A Kumar would perform the ritual at Balukeshwar temple.
Similar scenes of religious fervour were witnessed at temples of Sundargarh district headquarters town, Birmitrapur and Rajgangpur towns, Bonai sub-divisional headquarters and rural pockets of 17 blocks of the district.