BHUBANESWAR: While the delay in raising of ‘mahadeepa’ atop the Lingaraj temple on the occasion of Maha Shivaratri has caused embarrassment for the Lingaraj temple trust, servitors of the shrine said they had warned about it much ahead of time.Instead of the scheduled 10 pm, the ‘mahadeepa’ was lifted to the temple crown at around 1.10 am after a delay of over three hours.
A month back, members of the Brahmana Nijog and Puja Panda Nijog had submitted a letter to the temple trust stating that they will not complete their share of Maha Shivaratri rituals on time unless the state government looked into their demands. Their four demands are implementation of the Lingaraj temple ordinance, finalising the rights over rituals among nijogs, providing them rights of lands belonging to Lord Lingaraj and solving the dispute between Malia sevayats of Kapileswar temple and Khuntia sevayats of Lingaraj temple.
“Instead of discussing these demands with us, the temple trust went ahead with declaring that mahadeepa will be lifted atop the shrine at 10 pm. To draw attention of the government towards our demands, we decided to do the rituals as per our convenience and not by the trust’s rule book. We are ready to face any disciplinary action or show cause for this,” said Biranchi Pati, secretary of Brahmana Nijog of Lingaraj temple.
Members of both the nijogs said in the past four years prior to Ashoka Astami, Handi Bhangi, Chandan Yatra and Maha Shivaratri rituals of the temple, they have been urging the government and temple trust to look into their demands and the latter had been assuring to do so after the rituals were over. “However, the government and temple trust forget about our demands once the festivals are over,” they alleged.
Recently, the temple administration transferred possession of Lord Lingaraj’s lands from servitors to the deity, leading to resentment among them. Pati said only around 180 of the 2,500 servitors of the temple are in possession of temple land. “The lands were provided to us by erstwhile rulers for our service to Lord Lingaraj and not the government. In today’s times, we do not get anything for the work we do. The lands have been snatched away from us and temple ordinance is still not in place,” he said. Pati added that solution to the all other problems related to the rituals only lies with enacting a special law for Lingaraj temple just like it was done in case of Puri Jagannath temple. It will not only ensure financial aid for servitors but also, notify which nijog is responsible for which ritual.
The New Indian Express reached out to Khurda collector and Lingaraj temple trust head Sudarshan Chakraborty on the issue but there was no response. On the status of the Lingaraj ordinance, a higher official of the Law department said the file is pending at the President’s office.
Last year, the state government sent the ordinance to the Centre for vetting and the latter returned it to the Governor’s office with certain objections. The official said replies to the objections were filed and the Governor sent the ordinance to the President’s office. “There has been more questions on the ordinance from the President’s office after that and it has been in the cold storage since then,” the official added.