AGARTALA, April 3 (TIWN): Pomp and pageantry and devotion marked the occasion of Maha Saptami at Durga Bari temple as hundreds of people decked up in their best and gathered at the temple to offer prayers to Goddess Durga on Monday morning. Since early morning, people have been thronging at Durga Bari temple where idol of the goddess Durga with two hands at her back and her four children are being worshiped amid much community fanfare.

The religious rituals of Maha Saptami (seventh day on the lunar calendar) began with the bathing of a banana plant in ponds. The plant is treated like a bride, wrapped in a new sari and placed next to the idol of Lord Ganesh, son of Goddess Durga. This plant is called Kalabau' (banana plant bride) - considered the wife of Ganesha. The ritual is called 'Nabapatrika snan-o-sthapan' and many believe this practise is traced to the agrarian society of east India. The Nabapatrika (new leaves) consists of nine banana leaves. After the ritual, special worship for Saptami started and devotees on an empty stomach thronged pandals to pray to Durga and offered her 'pushpanjali' (floral offerings to the goddess). The age old celebration of the Durga puja at Durga bari temple began with Guard of honour on the occasion of Mahasahti on Monday.

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.

Thereafter, on the advice of priests, Durga has only two hands visible while the remaining eight are hidden behind her back.

As per the age old tradition, a buffalo will also be sacrificed to Goddess durga, which is every year given by state government to mark the win of good over evil at Durga bari temple on the day of Navami.

Organized by the ruling Left Front government, the five–day long Durga puja festivities in Tripura began with a guard of honour by state security forces to the goddess at the Durgabari, a royal temple of the erstwhile Manikya kings.