AGARTALA, Oct 17 (TIWN): Crowd thronged at ancient Durga Bari temple, Rama Krishna Mission and various temples on the occasion of Maha Astami. Maha Ashtami, also known as Durga Ashtami, was marked by significant rituals in the morning, beginning with Kumari Puja where girls are worshiped as personifications of the Goddess. The ‘Pushpanjali’ began morning 9.30 am Durga bari temple. Large number of crowd was witnessed at the premises of the Durga bari temple to offer prayers to Goddess Durga. Durga Puja is the biggest festival in the Eastern part of India when lakhs of people take on the streets to see the Durga idols and marquees. Ramakrishna Mission today organized Kumari Puja, the worship of a girl as the goddess Durga. The girl who is worshiped symbolises the power that regulates creation, stability and destruction on the earth. The young girl fasts until the puja is over. She is made to sit before the goddess's idol on a decorated chair with priests chanting hymns and drums being played in the background.

After the puja, the divinity of the goddess descends into the girl, said a monk of Ramakrishna Mission. As per Hindu mythology, goddess Durga killed Chando and Mundo, two demons at the confluence (Sandhi) of Mahashtami and Mahanavami.Large number of crowd was witnessed at the premises of the Durga Bari temple to offer prayers to Goddess Durga.  

Astami Bhog (Maha Bhog) also signifies Durga puja Astami. Durga Puja is the biggest festival in the Eastern part of India when lakhs of people take on the streets to see the Durga idols and marquees.

The morning rush was seen even yesterday on the auspicious day of Maha Saptami. People gathered to offer morning prayers as the rituals began with ‘pran pratistha’.

With this process, the deity was symbolically endowed with life and invoked in a group of nine plants bunched together — the Navapatrika.

In Tripura many puja’s have been organised with diverse themes, lightings and decorations wooing the people.

However, The idol of Goddess Durga of Durga Bari temple is widely known among people for its distinctive structure of the Goddess Durga with only two hands at her back.The idol is distinctive because, mythology says that Goddess Durga won over the evil buffalo demon Mahisasura with ten hands. The puja started nearly 200 years ago by King Radha Kishore Manikya Bahadur in the Durgabari premises. It still enjoys state patronage with the state administration sanctioning lakhs of Rupees for the puja every year.

Interestingly, the goddess has only two arms at the Durgabari Temple where the rituals are 200 years old and is currently organized by the state's Communist government. In the early nineteenth century, Krishna Kishore Manikya Bahadur's queen fainted after seeing the goddess with ten arms.