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Bhubaneswar: Shiva temples across the State are geared up for the celebration of Mahashivratri on Sunday, one of the famous festivals of Hindu community. All the Shiva shrines including Lingaraj temple in Bhubaneswar, Aradi in Bhadrak and Dhabaleshwar in Cuttack witnessed crowd since wee hours of Sunday on the great occasion.
Elaborate arrangements have been made to ensure a hassle-free celebration at Lingaraj temple which is decked-up with flowers and colourful blinking lights. Officials of temple administration said that the main door of the historic temple was opened from midnight for the devotees. Since then, the devotees are found lined up inside the shrine to offer puja. Some ''Kawarias'' are also found having their holy water of different rivers to offer it to Lord Shiva.
The whole day will witness four time puja (Chari prahar puja) to be performed as per the schedule. The ‘Hari-hara bheta’, a ritual of Lord Shiva, will also be performed with traditional fervor, according to temple sources. The temple priests have fixed schedule for the programme of ‘Mahadeepa’. According to the schedule, the Mahadeepa will be lifted to top of the temple at around 10pm after the performance of ‘Sandhya Dhupa’ (Evening rituals). As per Hindu belief, having a darshan Mahadeepa will cleanse all sins. After all these rituals, the Bada Singhar of Lord Lingaraj will be performed at 4.30 am followed by Pahuda rituals.
Similarly, the Shive devotees at other shrines of the State including Kapilas (Dhenkanal), Aradi (Bhadrak), Harishankar (Bolangir), Dhabaleswar (Cuttack), Gokarneswar (Ganjam) and Sri Loknath (Puri) are observing the festival with a devotional fervor and gaiety. Preparations have been made at all these shrines by the temple administration in connivance with respective district Endowment departments for a smooth observation.
