The auspicious occasion of Naag Panchami was celebrated in this city of Lord Shiva on Monday with all its traditional gaiety and religious fervour. Heavy rush of devotees was seen at the famous Naag Kund in Jaitpura area where a long queue of people was seen.
The devotees also offered prayers at a temple there. Similarly, the devotees also offered prayers at Kal Bhairav and other temples. Heavy rush of devotees and saffron-clad kanwariyas was also seen at Dashashwamedh and adjoining ghats and Kashi Vshwanath temple. It was the second continuous day which posed a big challenge to the Water Police and NDRF as despite falling water level, the river Ganga is still flowing above the normal level.
Right from the early morning, the lanes and localities were echoed with the slogans of ‘bade guruji, chote guruji naag lo bhai naag lo..’ as some children were selling pictures of Nag devta and other deities. Bade Guruji is used for Maharshi Panini, while Chote Guruji for Maharshi Patanjali.
Besides, at several places, ‘Dangal’ (wrestling) contests were organised at a few Akharas where even the female wrestlers could not hesitate in taking part. As Commonwealth Games are going on at Birmingham in the UK these days, enthusiasm was seen among the wrestlers as several budding talents who had brought a lot of laurels to the nation in several international sports events, had learnt the basics of wrestling at such types of traditional akharas fighting bouts at soil, instead of mats.
Meanwhile, Ayurvedic medicines were distributed to the devotees and kanwariyas by the members of Sanatani Samaj at a free health camp held on the occasion of Naag Panchami at Jain Mandir crossing, Maidagin. On the occasion, Nadi specialist Dr Dinesh Singh also examined the patients.
The camp was presided over by Apoorva Narayan Tiwari. Among those who were also present were Shubhjit Saha, Bachelal Gaur, Kashinath Tiwari, Chandan Vishwakarma, Rajan Kasera, Raju Sapera, Dhoorbator and Vikram Gupta.