Kendrapara:Like in the past, the tradition continued with all its glory at Chandi Dei temple this year too. Large numbers of women from near and far came in with rice flour, cheese, coconut, jaggery, sugar, firewood and new earthen pots to the temple at IndupurThursdaymorning to worship the deity. They offered Manda Pitha or rice cakes they prepared with their own hands outside the temple.
After offering the Manda Pitha, they returned to their homes by breaking the earthen pots near the temple.
Belief among the locals is that if a woman devotee offers Manda Pitha by setting up a hearth and preparing the cake with her own hands near the temple, this Thursday a year, which falls between Mahabishuba Sankranti and Brusha Sankranti, then all her wishes would be fulfilled,” said Sarat Kumar Mallick, a local.
“We in the family were worried about our failure to arrange marriage of our daughter. Every time, due to some reason, the marriage could not be fixed. I invoked the blessings of Maa Chandi Dei and wished last year that if the wedding was arranged and solemnised, I would offer cake before Her this Thursday. With the blessings of Chandi Dei, my daughter’s marriage was solemnised. Deeply indebted to the goddess, I came with all the items to prepare a cake and then offered it to the deity,” said Janaki Ojha, of Garapur.
Hundreds of women from within the district and outside turned up to prepare Manda Pitha braving the scorching heat, and propitiate the deity to have their wishes fulfilled.
“As per the folklore, the presiding deity Maa Chandi Dei appeared in the dream of the then priest of the temple about 300 years ago and directed him to arrange a lakh of humans for sacrifice before Her during the summer season. Having failed to do so, the priest prostrated before the goddess for showing him another way to please Her. The deity, thereon, directed the priest to arrange a lakh of Manda Pitha aThursdayevery year -a day that falls between the ahabishuba Sankranti and Brusha Sankranti,” cited Maheswar Rana, the present priest of the temple. This tradition has been ongoing for the past three centuries.
There also is another belief attached to this ritual. “If a barren woman offers Manda Pitha to the goddess, preparing it with her own hand during this day of a year and then destroyed the earthen pot, she would be blessed with a baby. Hundreds of young barren women come to the temple this day seeking the blessing of the deity by offering bhoga,” said Anusaya Pradhan, a septuagenarian who came in with her daughter-in-law for offering cake to Chandi Dei.