Cuttack: A group of local youths have come forward to decorate the Chandi temple in the Silver City here with plastic flowers on the occasion of Sodasha Upachara Puja.
The youths have also decided to decorate the shrine with flowers and fruits during the upcoming Dussehra festival at their own expenses, sources said
It is learnt that the decoration of Puri Srimandir with flowers and fruits during this year’s Rath Yatra has prompted the youths to beautify the Chandi shrine for Sodasha Upachara Puja and Durga Puja.
According to sources, around 25 local youths had held a meeting on Chandi temple precincts around a month ago to deliberate on their plan to decorate the shrine.
According to sources, the youths have spent around Rs 1.5 lakh to beautify the temple with plastic flowers. At least 10 artisans from Kolkata have worked hard to decorate the shrine, sources said.
The locals as well as devotees have welcomed the beautification initiative. Some of them have shared photos of the flower decoration on social media. “The flower decoration has added to the beauty of Chandi temple. The initiative has attracted more people to the shrine. The work done by the youths is indeed praiseworthy,” said Manoj Panda, a priest of Chandi temple.
Kiran Kumar Sahu, a local youth, has claimed that the flower decoration at Chandi temple is altogether a new concept in Cuttack. “We have been working hard to decorate the temple. The flower decoration has become a point of attraction for people,” he said.
Kalandi Behera, another local youth, claimed that they have succeeded in their plan to decorate the temple only due to the blessings of Goddess Chandi. “Initially, we thought that we will not succeed in our plan due to shortage of funds. However, we managed to arrange the resources by the blessings of the Goddess. We will try our best to decorate the shrine with flowers and fruits during Dussehra,” he added.
Legend has it that the royal priest of Kanika king had taken a siesta on a mound while grazing his cows. The priest, Hansanath Panda, felt something unusual at the mound. Goddess Chandi appeared in Panda’s dream that night.
Panda had told the king about his dream the next day. Subsequently, king had ordered his employees to dig the mound. The workers had found the idol of Goddess Chandi from the mound.
“Initially, the devotees used to worship the Goddess under a tree. Subsequently, a temple was built for the Goddess,” said a researcher.
