Vishwakarma Puja, dedicated to the god of architecture and engineering, is being celebrated at industrial houses, technical units and manufacturing units across the state with a lot of devotion today.
In Bhubaneswar, people owning technical and manufacturing units were seen preparing for the puja at their units. Similarly, people with their washed vehicles were seen making a beeline at temples to get their vehicles sanctified. Hundreds of vehicle owners gathered at the Vishwakarma temple near Kalinga Stadium.
Similarly, the auto owners’ associations have also put up puja pandalas at different locations of the city. In Industrial cities like Angul, Talcher, Rourkela, Joda and Barbil, the festival is being observed with much gaiety and fervour. Apart from industrial houses, factories, commercial set ups, engineers, craftsmen, artisans and mechanics also worship Lord Vishwakarma. The puja is also celebrated with great fervour in Puri Srimandir.
Lord Vishwakarma is worshipped every year on the last day of Bhadrapada or Bhadraba month, on Kanya Sankranti. The festival usually falls in the month of September.
Vishwakarma Puja is also known as Vishwakarma Jayanti. It is believed that he was born on this day. It is also believed that he was Lord Brahma’s son who created the universe, the celestial abode of the Gods and manufactured their vehicles and weapons.
He is also believed to have built Sri Lanka for King Ravana and Dwarka for Lord Krishna.
An episode involving Lord Vishwakarma is also heard in Odisha.
According to the legend, as a divine voice told him, King Indradyumna, an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu, found a neem log floating in Puri sea and brought it to the palace. Then he engaged the best carpenters to carve the idols of the deities but none could succeed, even in cutting the log, let alone crafting the idols. Their instruments kept breaking.
The king was worried. One day, Lord Vishwakarma appeared in disguise as an elderly carpenter and volunteered to make the idols. But he had a condition that none should open the door without his consent. Days, weeks, months and years passed. And the sounds of making idols were no longer heard too. Out of curiosity, the king opened the door only to find the idols half-constructed, with no limbs. Since then, the deities in that shape are being worshipped in Puri Srimandir.