Bada Osa, a prime ritual of the Lord Dhabaleswar temple in the island of Mahanadi near Mancheswar village under Athagarh block, will be performed sticking to the Covid guidelines and hence, the usual crowd of devotees in the shrine will not be found this year.
The Osa falls usually on the third day of Panchaka (the last five days of the holy Odia month of Kartik). Every year during the Panchaka, thousands of devotees throng the shrine for Lord's darshan. Last year, over three lakh devotees had thronged the shrine by ferry boats from Bidanasi side of Cuttack and through country's longest suspension bridge connecting the shrine from the Mancheswar hill of Athagarh side.This year the Endowment Department would observe the Panchaka from November 25 to 30 and the Bada Osa on November 28. Gajabhog and Tarana, the most favourite prasad of the Lord, will be prepared by the priests' community of Mancheswar village here. 120 priest families have been identified to perform the ritual of the Lord whose Covid test would be done by the administration well ahead. Gajabhog and Tarana would be distributed among the devotees at distant places in Athagarh and Cuttack.
Meanwhile, the local administration has already clamped Section 144 around the temple. To make the ritual hassle-free, adequate police deployment will be done, said Tangi-Choudwar SDPO PK Malla. In a meeting headed by Athagarh Sub-Collector Ajambar Mohanty, Tangi-Choudwar SDPO Malla, Athagarh Tehsildar Tapan Kumar Khuntia and members of the Pujaka (priests) Samaj of the temple decided to perform the ritual of the Lord in a restricted way, said sources.