CUTTACK: The five-day-long Durga Puja festivities drew to a close in the millennium city on Friday with immersion of idols of Goddess Durga, Hara-Parbati, Lord Shiva annihilating demon Jalandhar and other deities.
With weather being pleasant contrary to predictions of showers, the roads on the traditional route leading from Ranihat to Devi Gada, the immersion point located on the Kathajodi river bed, witnessed thousands of devotees and revellers lining up to bid farewell to the mother goddess.
Even as a sense of melancholy pervaded the city after conclusion of the festival, a carnival-like atmosphere prevailed at Devi Gada and its adjacent Purighat Ghat locality as people from different walks of life joining the colourful immersion processions with accompaniment of dhola, singha, madal, dulduli, blowing of conches and rhythmic round of cymbals to bid adieu to the goddess. Makeshift shops were set up along the roadside by rural artisans selling different kinds of household and handicrafts materials near Devigada.
Of the total 176 puja mandaps, while Goddess Durga was worshipped at 103, the clay idols of other deities, including that of Lord Hara-Parbati and Lord Shiva were consecrated at the remaining puja pandals.
As many as 39 idols of Goddess Durga and Hara-Parbati were immersed in the three artificial ponds set up on Kathajodi river bank near Devigada by 7.45 pm. Keeping their tradition intact, the Shakti Pithas (shrines), Bengali communities and individual households had immersed their idols and kalashas immediately after Vijaya Dashami rituals were over on Thursday night.
The immersion ceremony began at 9 am in the morning initially with ‘Sahi Parikrama’, a tradition in which the puja organisers moved their medhas in and around their respective localities. Later, the medhas were taken in grand procession on the traditional route from Ranihat to Devigada via Mangalabag, Buxi Bazaar, Tinikonia Bazar, Dhargha Bazar and Choudhury Bazaar, Nimchuari, Chandni Chowk and Telenga Bazar.
Though there was a competition among the puja committees towards making grand, colourful and attractive procession, all of them, instead of using DG, loudspeakers and different modern electronic musical bands, opted for traditional folk dances and musical instruments with an aim to observe the immersion ceremony with minimum noise pollution.
Traditional tribal folk dances like Ghoda Nacha, Sandha Nacha, Kela-Keluni, Sabara-Sabaruni, Jodi Sankha, Dhola-Mahuri and other traditional musical instruments like Jhanja, mrudanga and cymbals were extensively used during the immersion procession. Various traditional musical and folk dance troupes from different parts of the states like Berhampur, Balangir, Sambalpur, Sonepur, Sundargarh participated and enthralled revellers with their exquisite artistic skills thereby making the procession colourful and eye-catching.
Aghori dance, skeletons’ dance and a women’s folkdance troupe of Tulasipur puja committee, Srikakulam Band Party of Sikharpur were crowd-pullers during the immersion procession.
Going by the tradition, Bakhrabad puja committee which worships idol of Bharat Mata had gone for immersing the idol with simple procession wherein the locals were found holding National Flags and dancing to the tune of patriotic songs and music.
Apart from traffic restrictions, 122 platoons of police force and three companies of CRPF were deployed with 60 police aid posts set up for smooth conduct of immersion ceremony. There was no report of any untoward incident till last reports came in, said DCP Khilari Rishikesh Dnyandeo.