Papadahandi, Feb 21: Maha Shivaratri was celebrated on Sunday at the ancient Sri Neelakantheswar Temple located in Papadahandi. The rituals were conducted under the supervision of chief priest Shiv Kumar Tripathi. The temple doors were opened early in the morning, and after completion of all rituals, devotees were allowed to have darshan of Lord Neelakantheswar throughout the day.
Priests Tridev Tripathi, Hari Tripathi, and Neelakanth Tripathi assisted in conducting the पूजा and rituals. Temple committees and various local organizations arranged drinking water, buttermilk drink (pana), halwa, and khichdi for devotees and distributed them throughout the day.
At around 10 PM, the Mahadeep (sacred lamp) ritual was performed. Devotees observed the Jagar by lighting lamps across the temple premises. For entertainment, a tribal drama performance was organized at night. Basi Shivaratri was also observed at the temple on Monday.
The event was managed under the supervision of temple committee president and Tahsildar Tapan Kumar Nayak. Among those present were former sarpanch B. Jaganmohan Rao, vice-president Sushant Kumar Behera, former vice-president Trinath Pradhan, G. Ananta Murti, Manoj Kumar Agrawal, Jitendra Gouda, Shankarlal Agrawal, Rajkishore Rao, V. Srinivas Rao, and N. Santosh Rao.
On the occasion of Maha Shivaratri, heavy gatherings of devotees were also seen at Baba Jhadeswar Temple in the block headquarters area, Garbharai Temple at Nuakot, and the New Mahadev Temple at Kaliaguda.
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