JAGATSINGHPUR: AS many as 40 puja pandals have come up in Balia village of Jagatsinghpur but only one houses Goddess Durga. Large idols of different deities of Hindu pantheon including the divine siblings - Lord Jagannath, Devi Subhadra and Lord Balabhadra - are being worshipped in the rest. This is the only place in the State where other deities are worshipped along with Goddess Durga during the five-day festival.
The pandal set up by Balia Puja Committee house idols of the divine Siblings. This year, a local artist Sukant Behera has constructed the puja pandal where Lord Jagannath and His Siblings are being worshipped. The pandal has been made from thermocol and the idol of Lord Jagannath is shaped like that of a lion. While the celebrations started from Sasthi, the deities are being adorned in different ‘beshas’ every day.
This apart, idols of Radha-Krishna, Lord Shiva and Devi Parvati, Lord Ram and Devi Sita, Hanuman and Laxman and other deities have been installed in other puja pandals. Sukhadev Behera, a 70-year-old resident of nearby Kendal village, said his family visits Balia every year to witness the unique celebration. “The five-day festival is a congregation of all gods and goddesses,’ he said.
Locals said a goldsmith family had started celebrating Durga Puja at Balia village 55 years back. Subsequently, it was Bengali families and locals who took over. Historians said traders from West Bengal used to come to Jagatsinghpur through the waterways. There was a harbour in river Alaka at Hariharpur (old name for Jagastinghpur headquarters town) and another at Chelitola in Tirtol. Hariharpur was the only river harbour of Odisha at that time.
Villages like Balia, Punaga, Badbag, Bhagbanpur, Sirlo and Nabapatana lay in its vicinity and people here specialised in weaving. The Bengali traders used to purchase sarees from them and sold the products in West Bengal. It is during this period that a lot of Bengali families settled in these parts of Jagatsingpur and began organising the puja. Instead of only setting up Durga idols in pandals, people of Balia started worshipping different deities during the puja.
In many other parts of the district, puja is celebrated as per Bengali rituals for the last 500 years. Every year, priests and Dhakis (traditional drummers) from West Bengal are roped in by Bengali families to conduct the puja. The Ghosh families of Burdhan district in West Bengal made Punaga village their home in the 15th century. During Dussehra, they used to construct house called ‘Ghosh Ghara’ where Devi Durga was worshipped for a period of five days beginning from Sasthi. Even today, the rituals have not undergone any change.