AGARTALA, Oct 5 (TIWN): Capital city Agartala is glittering on Saptami night with colourful decorations, lighting and various theme based pandal organized by clubs for this Durga puja festival, known as the greatest festival of Bengalis all over world. Like every year, Bengal, Tripura, Assam and other states have been observing this Durga puja with full enthusiasm. Children, youngsters, senior citizens all have equally participating in puja celebrations in their own ways. Law and order has been under tight control with huge numbers of police have been deployed across capital city and other subdivisions. The puja has been observed under tribal, non-tribal harmony. After puja was offered to Goddess Durga in morning with ‘anjali’ (offering of flowers) at 11.30 am with 7 ‘bhogs’ (food offered to Goddess Durga), the evening puja with one ‘bhog’ was offered.The day started off with morning prayers, as the rituals commenced with "pran pratistha" where the deity was symbolically endowed with life and invoked in a group of nine plants bunched together -- the 'Navapatrika'.

The "Kola Bou", a tender banana plant symbolising a bride, was given a river bath amidst drum beats, wrapped in a sari and placed next to the idol of Ganesha. Through "pran pratistha", the spirit of Durga as a warrior goddess is awakened, and she starts her battle against the manifestation of all evils in the form of Mahishasura -- the buffalo demon.In accordance with custom, fasting devotees offered flowers to the goddess in obeisance and later gorged on an array of delicacies.

People from the metropolis, the Bengal villages, other parts of India as also various countries walked shoulder to shoulder, paying obeisance to the goddess and watching in awe the colossal marquees - many of them beautiful work of art - on Maha Saptami (the seventh Lunar day).

They danced, whistled, mingled with friends and family, relished the street foods on makeshift stalls, and patiently stood in long queues before the landmark marquees. Even a brief spell of rain failed to dampen their spirit. 

The five-day carnival is the biggest annual event in this part of the world as roads are choked with human traffic throughout day and night.

The pujas at the houses of erstwhile zamindar (landowner) families of Hatkhola's Duttas, the Devs of Shovabazar in North Kolkata and Mullicks of South Kolkata's Bhowanipore also drew a steady stream of onlookers.

According to Hindu mythology, the festivities and prayers begin with the symbolic arrival of the goddess on earth on the sixth day of the first quarter of the moon and ends on Dashami or the 10th day, which is celebrated across the country as Dussehra.