BHUBANESWAR: The daily rituals in Lingaraj temple, which were disrupted since 4.30 pm on Saturday, were resumed on Sunday evening after Khurda ADM assured the agitating servitors of looking into their demands including the ongoing conflict between sevayats of lord Lingaraj and lord Kapilanath of Kapileswar temple in Old Town.
On Saturday, members of two priest groups, Brahmana Nijog and Pujapanda Nijog, in Lingaraj temple refused to conduct the rituals in protest against carrying out of Maha Baruni Buda of Lord Kapilanath before that of Lord Lingaraj.
Although it had been earlier decided by servitors of both the temples that the Maha Baruni Buda of Lord Lingaraj will be held first at the Baruneswari ghat at Samantrapur as he is the presiding deity, servitors of Kapileswar temple conducted the ritual of Lord Kapilanath first without informing their counterparts of Lingaraj temple. The Maha Baruni Buda of Lord Kapilanath was conducted at 3.30 pm on Saturday at the ghat. Protesting it, the servitors of Lingaraj temple decided not to go ahead with the Maha Baruni Buda ritual of Lord Lingaraj and stopped all other rituals.
Although two meetings were held by the Lingaraj temple administration with the agitating servitors to resolve the issue, the latter did not budge from their stand demanding action against the servitors of Lord Kapilanath and Endowment Commissioner Govind Chandra Panigrahi, who is in-charge of Kapileswar temple.
On Sunday, a high-level meeting of the Lingaraj temple trust board and agitating servitors was called under the chairmanship of ADM Manas Kumar Mohanty. The ADM assured the servitors of conducting an inquiry into the incident and take steps to prevent further conflicts between servitors of both the temples. It was also decided that action would be taken against any servitor for stopping rituals of the deity without prior intimation to the temple trust board.
While rituals in Lingaraj temple were resumed at 5.30 pm, secretary of Brahmana Nijog Biranchi Narayan Pati demanded that the Endowment Commissioner should resign in wake of the frequent irregularities in rituals.