The festive season has started. People from all walks of life are in a mood to enjoy to the hilt. But here in a remote village, people fear to worship by erecting the deity’s earthen idol.
The locals fear if anyone dare worship the deity Durga by erecting earthen idol, he has to face the same fate like the Ranabad family of Purba Nikirai village.
According to Kedar Jena, a villager of Purba Nikirai village, erecting an earthen idol of Maa Durga for worshipping during the Navaratri festivity means inviting doom—all family members will die untimely. So the locals have been skipping worshipping Durga for over a decade.
According to Jena, the Druga Puja in the locality was started by the Ranabad family during 1650s. One Nika Jena, who came from Khurda district, settled in the village 350 years back. He later worked under Aul royal family and got the title of “Ranabad” from the then King of Aul.
Nika Ranabad started the Durga Puja. Nika, while bathing in the river Birupa, fished out a medha of Kanak Durga from the river and later he started worshipping the deity. After his demise, his grandson Radhakrushna Ranabad worshipped the deity every year during the Navaratri time. But, he died untimely.
As a result, Radhakrushna’s son Jadumani started Durga Puja by erecting an idol. As he failed to give birth to a child, he adopted his nephew Dushasan Biswal of nearby Kulasahi to run the tradition of worshiping the deity Durga. later, Jadumani died untimely in the year 1951.
Dushasan, the adopted son of Jadumani, held the puja by erecting an earthen idol of Durga, but he died a day after Dussehra while going to his native village at Kulasahi.
Saraswati Ranabad, the widow of Jadumani, who was the last member alive in Ranabad family, organized the Durga Puja with the help of some locals by erecting an idol at the same old medha in1990. But she also died in 2005. After her demise, locals feared to hold Durga Puja at the old medha and hence, the old medha is now lying amidst shrubs.
According to the villagers, the sword of the deity, brass plates, metal bells and several other ornaments are lying inside the shrubs with the medha.