Purusottampur: The second Tuesday of annual Chaitra festival at the famous Tara Tarini shrine turned out to be a damp squib with no devotee attending it or unable to attend it following the restrictions imposed by the Ganjam district administration over coronavirus scare, a report said Tuesday.
The famous shrine, which has witnessed turnout of nearly two lakh devotees in previous years, during this year’s festival wore a deserted look as the district administration banned the entry of devotees to the shrine over the disease scare. The restriction triggered fear among the devotees as many of them stayed away from the shrine fearing that they might get infected of the virus if they visit the temple.
Tara Tarini hill shrine is located on Kumari hill on the banks of the Rushikulya river and is a major centre of Shakti worship in the state. It is a famous religious place in south Odisha where the deity represented as twin sisters Tara and Tarini adorn the sanctum sanctorum situated on the top of a hillock girdled by the waddling holy river Rushikulya. Tara Tarani attracts thousands of devotes, picnickers and visitors throughout the year.
The deities represented by two idols or as twin sisters of Tara and Tarini were decked up in the Mahalakshmi attire for darshan to the devotees. However, the devotees could not visit the temple due to the restrictions imposed by the district administration. The rituals of the deities started at 3 am and the doors of the temple were thrown open for the public at 6.30 am but no devotees were seen at the shrine.
Many devotees who had come from far flung areas and were not aware of the restrictions wanted to visit the hill top temple to tonsure the heads of their kids but they failed to do so as police had sealed all the entry points to the shrine. Left with no option, many of them tried to tonsure their kids’ heads on roadside, orchard and on the banks of Rushikulya. On being informed, administrative officials raided the places.
The devotees come here to tonsure the heads of their kids as per the age-old tradition of offering hair of newborns after the first birthday at the shrine for a blissful life. Devotees make their offerings to the goddess and feasts are arranged to mark this occasion.
However, with the advent of the disease in the country the district administration cancelled the visiting of the devotees to the shrine as a precautionary measure against COVID-19 infection.
The officials led by Chhatrapur sub-collector Priyaranjan Prusty, ASP Thakur Prasad Patra, Purusottampur SDPO Seema Swain, tehsildar Arun Kumar Nayak, BDO Seemanchal Mohanty and IIC Jagannath Mallick kept a close watch on the unfolding situation.