The people of Bastar on Tuesday gave a ceremonious farewell to the deities believed to be visiting Bastar for the Dussehra festival. The customary farewell ceremony of Goddess Danteshwari Devi will be organised in Dantewada on Wednesday.
According to belief of the local people, deities come to Bastar to participate in Dussehra and return after the festival concludes. The farewell ceremony began with Kutumb Yatra for the deities from different ‘Parganas’.
The processions of deities in their symbolic attires and ornaments carried in ‘Doli’ and ‘Chatra’ reached the campus of Mahatma Gandhi School in Gangamunda area where large number of people had gathered to take blessings and to bid farewell to the deities.
The ceremony was accomplished with full rituals and people gave offerings to the deities for fulfilling their wishes. People bee-lined before the deities for grant of wishes while the shopkeepers selling ‘puja’ material did quick business.
The Kutumb Yatra is an important ritual of the Bastar Dussehra. This will be followed by farewell of Goddess Danteshwari Devi in a ‘Doli’ on Wednesday. large number of devotees are expected to bid adieu to the Goddess.
The 75-day long Bastar Dussehra is famous across the world and large number of domestic and foreign tourists visit Bastar during the festival. A number of rituals and customs are performed during the festival which concludes with farewell of deities.