Mathili: Eighteen villagers from Maliguda village of Nayakguda panchayat under this block in Malkangiri district ploughed the village head’s farmland of two acres. According to reports, the local residents did this voluntarily and the act was to show their respect to the village head. The villagers used to do such voluntary work once in a year.
Biswanath Beti, the village head, is known as Pujari babu. He worships the village goddess at the village shrine and prays for the welfare and prosperity of people and the locality. It is only because of his worship, peace and prosperity of the village is maintained throughout the year, according to local people.
The villagers give the priest the same sort of respect they would offer to the deity. During the village festivals, Biswanath offers ‘puja’ at the shrine and prays for the prosperity of the village.
The villagers believe that that the locality hadn’t ever suffered any problem because of the head’s prayers at the shrine.
“As the village priest does a lot for our village, we in turn do comparatively less service to him by ploughing his farmland once in a year,” said villagers Dambaru Peda, Bhagaban Baka, Ram Baka and Jagannath Pangi.
PNN
