AGARTALA, March 24 (TIWN): The traditional Basanti Puja will begin from tomorrow at Durgabari. It will continue for four days. The actual worship of the Goddess Durga as stipulated by the Hindu scriptures falls in the month of Chaitra, which roughly overlaps with March or April and is called Basanti Durga Puja. This ceremony is not observed by many and is restricted to a handful in the state of Tripura. The more popular form, which is also known as Sharadiya (Autumnal) Durga Puja, is celebrated later in the year with the dates falling either in September or October. Since the Goddess is invoked at the wrong time, it is called "Akaal Bodhon" in Bengali.

There is also a mythological belief that Lord Ram, who was a Durga worshiper, worshiped Goddess Durga before going for a war with Ravana. Rama had performed blessings of Durga, who blessed Rama with secret knowledge of the way to kill Ravana. On the day of Ashwin Shukla Dashami, Rama's party found Sita and defeated Ravana. This day is thus also celebrated as Dushera.

Due to this, the skyrocketing price of fruits, vegetables and essential commodities have put the people of middle class and lower middle­class in extreme trouble in commodity market here in the state. The sudden increases of vegetable prices have seriously hit the common men. Almost all vegetables, fruits in the city’s markets have become costlier, with many becoming out of reach of the middle class family. Rising prices of vegetables have upset budgets of middle and lower class families, particularly affecting those below the poverty line. The fact that prices of some of the essential commodities have increased further has created great dissatisfaction.