Kendrapara: Braving the scorching summer heat many women Thursday came with their cooking gadgets, rice flour, fresh cheese, coconuts, jaggery, sugar, firewood and new earthen pots to the Chandi Dei temple at Indupur to worship and offer cakes (Manda Pitha).
After offering the cakes the women destroyed the pots near the temple and returned.
The women were trying to appease the deity Maa Chandi Dei to save their lives and property from the wrath of nature. They vowed before the deity that they would come every year to offer cakes if catastrophes do not hit the district as well as the state.
The people here have strong faith in Maa Chandi Dei as the deity does not disappoint devotees.
Parvati Sahu, 68, of Makundapur in Chhata, came to the temple Thursday with her family. She comes to the temple on the Thursday that comes between Mahabishuba Sankranti and Brusha Sankranti to offer cakes to Maa Chandi Dei as the deity had fulfilled her wish for a grandson.
This time Parvati came with her family to offer cakes and pray to the Goddess to protect the district as well as the state from nature’s fury as cyclone Fani had devastated several coastal districts like Kendrapara.
The sufferings of the Fani-hit people of Puri, Khurda, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara cannot be described in words.
Parvati is sure that Maa would protect the lives and properties of the people as it is believed that if a woman offers Manda Pitha after preparing it near the temple on a Thursday which falls between Mahabishuba Sankranti and Brusha Sankranti, then all her wishes will be fulfilled.
Hundreds of women were seen preparing cakes in the scorching heat. The women took a vow that they would come to the temple every year to offer cake to the deity if nature’s fury does not hit the district as well as the state, said Subhasmita Sahu, another devotee.
“Tradition says that Maa Chandi Dei appeared in a dream to the then priest of the temple around 300 years back and directed him to arrange a lakh human beings for sacrificing them before her during summer. After failing to arrange such a huge number of humans for sacrifice, the priest prostrated before the Goddess for a substitute and the deity directed the priest to arrange lakhs of Manda Pithas on every Thursday that falls between Mahabishuba Sankranti and Brusha Sankranti. The priest appeased the deity by arranging a lakh Manda Pithas,” said Maheswar Rana, the priest of the temple.
“We had tried nearly five years to arrange the marriage of our daughter but in vain. I approached Maa Chandi Dei and vowed before her last year that if my daughter’s marriage gets solemnised, I would offer cakes to her. My daughter’s marriage was solemnised last winter. I came here to prepare cake and offer it to the deity,” said Sashirekha.
There is also a belief here that if an infertile woman offers Manda Pitha to Goddess Chandi Dei after preparing it with her own hands during this time of the year and destroys the earthen pot, then she would become a mother. This is the reason hundreds of infertile women come to the temple during this time of the year to get blessings of the deity, said Rebati Behera of Kumbharsahi.
PNN