BHUBANESWAR: The Lingaraj temple saw a mammoth gathering of devotees who waited in and outside the shrine to offer prayers and witness the raising of the ceremonial lamp, on Maha Shivaratri on Friday.
Unlike the previous year when lifting of the ‘mahadeepa’ was delayed by close to two hours, servitors completed the important ritual of the festival on time this year despite a short delay in conduct of rituals at noon.
While devotees had started queuing outside the temple since 12 am, the doors of the shrine were opened at 3 am for ‘aalati’ ritual. By 6 am, the serpentine queue of devotees outside it extended for at least one km. Priests allowed ‘Sahana Mela’ (public darshan) of the deity from 4 am to 12 pm.
Thousands of devotees took turns to enter the shrine to offer prayers. However, the rituals at ‘Bhoga mandap’ were delayed by 15 minutes at noon which forced the temple administration to stop ‘Sahana Mela’. The temple was re-opened in the evening for public darshan.
Head of Brahmana Nijog Biranchi Narayana Pati informed the evening rituals were streamlined as a result of which, the ‘mahadeepa’ was lifted atop the temple as per schedule between 10 pm and 10.30 pm. Heads of three Sevayat Nijogs were present inside the temple to monitor the timely conduct of all rituals.
Thousands of devotees, who were on a day-long fast, waited patiently inside the temple complex for the final ritual to be over after which they broke their fast. Among others, 5T chairman VK Pandian and Culture department commissioner-cum-secretary Sujata R Karthikeyan offered prayers at the shrine. The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation had deployed its personnel to provide drinking water to devotees besides undertaking sanitation work around the temple. A tight security blanket was thrown around the temple premises.