Sambalpur: The popular shrine of regional deity Maa Samlei opened Monday marking Baishakh Purnima after a rare closure lasting 19 days. The period saw necessary repairs being conducted at its sanctum sanctorum and installation of a new drainage system.
A ‘homa yajna ‘ was held early in the morning for purification of the garbha gruha (sanctum sanctorum) for fear that impurities might have been caused there while the temple went through the repair works.
The devotees thronged the shrine in large numbers as they were allowed to do worship to their presiding deity after a gap of 19 days. The deity had been moved away and kept for worship at a different location inside the temple for these 19 days. Another statue of Maa Samlei used to be worshiped there. It symbolised the prime deity, as the original statue remained embedded inside the garbha gruha.
The managing trustee of the Samlei Trust Board Sanjay Babu said a purification of the garbha gruha was conducted by washing the space with Gangajal alongside performance of other required rituals Sunday night.
The statue of prime deity Maa Samlei was got readied for public view (darshan) with a new get-up and it was adorned with a fresh set of ornaments and clothing. It had been left without much care for the last 19 days.
The worship process besides visit of devotees inside the gabha gruha had been totally suspended from April 11 to 29.
The restoration works were overdue. The entire floor of the gabha gruha and some portion of the walls were riddled with rat holes that made the entire base of the structure porous and weak. This weakened the centuries-old walls of the historic temple. A collapse had looked imminent. Devotees note that it was by the grace of Maa Samlei that it could remain intact so far.
Managing trustees thanked the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), whose officials visited the temple on an earlier occasion and identified the threats to the temple’s grand structure. The entire repair works were conducted as per the advice and suggestions of experts from ASI. It was done under the direct supervision of its conservation engineer Prasanna Sahu.
More than one quintal of mixture including polymer, sealing agents and other chemical besides 30 quintals (60 bags) of cement were required to fill the cavities left behind by rodents. The mixture was injected by the help of pneumatic pressure machines that did deeper penetration to seal and strengthen the weakened portion of the structure. A new drainage system was installed there.
Sanjay Babu said all sorts of precautions would be taken henceforth to safeguard the temple that has remained as the centre of faith and trust of millions of devotees, the Goddess Samlei being the prime deity of the region.
Thousands of earthen lamps besides innumerable packs of incensed sticks used to be lighted by devotees as part of rituals and worship every day. The heat thus emitted used to inflict major damage to the structure.
In fact, the temple trust had provided a huge bronze-lamp-like structure and racks, where lamps and incense sticks could have been offered by the devotees. But some devotees insisted on offering these too inside the garbha gruha. Not anymore. Henceforth, no one will be allowed to do such things; so as to avoid causing any more damage to the structure. The priests and security guards have been instructed to strictly abide by the decision of the trust board.