No rituals in Lingaraj temple as servitors still on disagreement

Bhubaneswar: No rituals have been performed at the Lingaraj temple in the capital city since Saturday as the two groups of servitors, who had a disagreement over some rituals of the lord, are yet to lend their cooperation, even after a meeting held on Sunday.

“As the Lord is unable to speak like us, we have become the silent spectators to such unfortunate incidents. If He wishes, he can solve in the impasse in no time,” said an upset devotee.

Temple servitor Satyanarayan Mohapatra said, “We had informed the administration about it through letters since four months, but there has been no action by the latter till date. Had the administration acted promptly, such incident would have never happened. As per the tradition, one ritual begins only after completion of another ritual. How can we perform the next rituals as there were no previous rituals? He asked.”

Asked about the matter, Khurda collector Niranjan Sahu said “We have requested the Endowment commissioner to intervene in the matter. We are also planning to hold another meeting with the Law department, he added.

The incident is a fallout of a dispute between the Malia and Khuntia servitors over the ‘Handi Bhanga’ Yatra recently.