Keonjhar: With rain playing a cat and mouse game in this district, hundreds of women Thursday worshipped and offered ‘bhog’ to ‘Goddess Mahaveeraa’ at Raidiha village of Thakurpada panchayat under Harichandanpur block in Keonjhar district. They prayed for sufficient amount of rainfall and for the departed souls of the village.
The villagers have a deep-rooted faith that worshipping the village deity would end all their sufferings and they would get proper rainfall.
Early in the day, women of Raidiha village gathered at the temple of the shrine. They sang devotional songs along with the beats of traditional musical instruments to show their faith in the deity.
“We had begun agricultural activities on the occasion of Akshaya Tritiya. But it stalled due to lack of water,” some male members of the village observed.
At some places, paddy saplings have turned red and at some other places cracks have appeared on agricultural land due to the scarcity of water. This development has left the farmers a worried lot.
Call it coincidence or a miracle it started raining in the locality once the prayers ended. This reaffirmed the villagers’ faith in the deity. They returned home fully drenched hoping more would come soon and boost their agricultural aspirations.
PNN