More than three lakh devotees, including some senior bureaucrats, turned up at the shrine of Maa Tara Tarini here on the second Tuesday of the month of Chaitra on April 9.
With the chanting of traditional mantras at the midnight of Monday, the festivals of the Holy Tuesday started. The priests performed the Snana, Majana and Maha Arati of the Goddesses at the midnight. After these rituals, the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, considered as the Sthana Pitha (Breast Shrine) of Adi Shakti, was thrown open for Darshan of devotees since 2 in the morning.
During the Maha Arati festival at the midnight, around 30,000 devotees were present in the hill shrine. The devotees waited in long queues to take a glimpse of Adi Shakti Tara Tarini and offer prayers at the temple on the hilltop. People from every nook and corner of Odisha and far-off places of the country and outside were present on the occasion.
On this occasion, more than 10,000 kids tonsured their heads as per the age-old tradition of offering hair of newborns after the first birthday at the shrine for a blissful life.
The Tara Tarini Development Board (TTDB) arranged Khichdi Prasad of the Goddess besides ensuring safe drinking water for the devotees. As per the tradition, around 3,000 groups from different parts of the State cooked their food as offering to the goddesses in the orchards at the foothill and had a day of picnic at the shrine.
Heavy police deployment was made by the local administration to avert any untoward incident and control the large numbers of people. Police beat houses and temporary health centres were set up near the foothill bus-stop and at the lion’s Gate of the shrine.
Six special buses were pressed into service to help the devotees reach the hilltop. Arrangements were also made for a special Darshan of the Maa.
However, in an unfortunate incident, two devotees died during the Chaitra Yatra. Siddhant Behera (16) of Keshapur drowned in river Rushikulya while taking bath and K Rina Patra of Balarampur under the Hinjili police station died as a branch of a mango tree fell on her near the Panthashala at the foothill.