Fifty IIT Bhubaneswar students and 25 other walkers teamed up to explore the heritage sites in the Old Town area of the city as they took part in the 37th heritage tour, but apart from archaeology, they also explored the traditional practices while on the move as the road-side vendors near the lingaraj Temple came up with several exotic herbs and vegetables for the Rs Rs Sathi Osha’’ puja.
The unique event is typically celebrated in Odia homes as mot ers on this day organise it for the safety and betterment of her children. As the curious Ekamra Walks visitors asked the vendors to explain the unique tradition, local businessman Akshaya Rath explained, Rs Rs Sathi Osha is observed by Odia mothers in which they would cook different dishes with six different vegetables, do the Rs puja’ with six types of flowers and welcome the children with six different prescribed plants to keep them safe.’’
All types of common and exotic vegetables needed for this special Rs puja’ were on sale near the vegetable market near lingaraj Temple along with different plants representing the herbs. The visitors also came to know how the Old Bhubaneswar region of the city was keeping its traditions alive along with the monuments.
Banker Sushant Biswal from Sambalpur said, “Apart from the heritage walk, knowing the traditional practice is also an interesting aspect of this walk. We must document the old traditions so that our future generation would practice them to keep them alive for ages to come.’’
Biswal’s wife Ashoka Manjari Nayak, an educationist said, “In the past I had inspired many to take part in the heritage walk of the city. However, while walking along the beautiful monuments I realised that I made a great mistake coming after 36 walks. I would tell other friends to come and spend their Sunday morning with the visitors of Ekamra Walks.’’
Assistant Conservator of Forests and in-charge of Ekamra Van, Ashok Mishra said, “As the Ekamra Kshetra is also known as Hari Hara Kshetra, here in all major temples of lord Shiva, Tulsi is being used as an offering along with leaves of stone apple (Bela). However, in practice leaves of stone apple is exclusively used for Shiva worship while Tulsi is used for lord Vishnu.’’
Interestingly, the IIT Bhubaneswar students have been continuously arriving at Ekamra Walks and exploring monuments while knowing the basics of the unique temple building traditions of Kalinga, the ancient name for modern Odisha. After making near centuries in attendance during 34th and 35th Ekamra Walks, today at 37th walk the came with 50 students.
Pranab Narang, a first year BTech student, original resident of Bokaro Steel City in Jharkhand, said, “Heritage walk really taught me many things on the different temple architectures of the region and how\ many are so well conserved though they were built way back in 7th Century.’’
Nidharshini, also BTech first year student of IIT-BBS, who is originally from Telangana, said, “The heritage walk is an informative and educative venture.”