lakhs of people made holy darshran of Maa Samaleswari on Tuesday in a special attire called Dhabalamukhi Besha.

The presiding deity of the region that attracts thousands of devotees everyday usually looks red. But on the day of Mahalaya she turns white clad in rare apparel. It is believed that the darshan of the mother in the Dhabalamukhi Besha brings peace and prosperity for the devotees.

It is believed that the darshan of the Goddess in the Besha is as good as taking a holy dip in the Ganga. “It is also otherwise called as Ganga Darshan,” said Samaleswari temple trust board president Suren Mohanty.

The devotees waited for the day with all devotion to take a glimpse of the Goddess on Tuesday since morning. They lined up in long queue to enter into the temple. It took nearly 2-3 hours for a devotee to have the darshan, given the big rush in the temple premises.

The pain of waiting in a queue for long hours gets relived after one catches a glimpse of the deity, said devotee Sweta Patnaik.

“Every year, as a matter of practice, we come to the temple with family early in the morning and after the darshan we go back home. We pass the days hereafter peacefully with all success,” she averred with a tone of gratitude for the Mother Goddess.

“This Besha will continue for two days and thereafter the Navaratra Puja for Dussehra will begin,” informed Siba Shankar Nanda, a member of the Samaleswari temple trust board. During the Navaratra, the Mother would be adorned with different Beshas like Sailaputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kusumanda, Skandhamata, Katyayani, Kalaratri, Mahagouri and Raja Rajeswari.  During these nine days, the temple also witnesses huge turnout of devotees from Odisha and neighbouring States, he informed.