Admin clears air on conduct of Sital Sasthi ritual at Lingaraj temple

Bhubaneswar: Clearing the uncertainty over conduct of Sital Sasthi Jatra at Lingaraj Temple scheduled to be held tomorrow, the administration on Saturday assured that the annual festival will be held as per tradition.

Khurda Collector Nirmal Mishra, who is also the Chairman of the Lingaraj Temple Trust Board, said that attempts are being made from the administration side to resolve the dispute while the conduct of Shiv-Vivah and Sital Sasthi ritual of Lord Lingaraj will be held in a peaceful manner.

"We have received judicial clearance and we will try to solve the dispute between the servitor groups of Kapileswar temple within a month or two. But following our intervention, the servitors of Lingaraj temple have assured to cooperate in conducting the rituals tomorrow,” said Temple Trust Board member, Manas Mohapatra.

Earlier, uncertainty had loomed large over the Sital Sasthi ritual as the Brahmin Nijog and the Puja Panda Nijog of the temple had threatened to disrupt the yatra against the non-participation of Lord Kapilanath during observance of the annual ritual.

It is to be noted that due to a dispute between Khuntia and Mallia servitors of the Kapileswar temple, Lord Kapilanath was not being allowed to participate in the Sital Sasthi Jatra at the 11^th century shrine since last three years.

The Orissa High Court this year ordered that Lord Kapilanath would be allowed to participate in the ritual.