Bhubaneswar, Feb 15 (PTI) Lakhs of devotees thronged Shiva temples across Odisha on Sunday to offer prayers on the occasion of Maha Shivratri.
The temples are decked up with flowers, lights and earthen lamps, while special security arrangements were made for each of the shrines to ensure smooth darshan for the devotees and movement of traffic.
Huge gatherings of devotees were seen at Lingaraj temple here, Dhabaleswar temple in Cuttack, Kapilash temple in Dhenkanal, Akhandalamani temple in Bhadrak, Chandaneswar in Balasore, Huma temple in Sambalpur, Loknath temple in Puri, Mahendragiri in Gajapati, Harishankar temple in Bolangir and Gupteswar in Koraput district.
The ceremonial ‘Mahadeepa’ is scheduled to be raised at different times at the Shiva shrines as per tradition.
A large number of people queued up at the Lingaraj temple since 4 am to have darshan of Lord Shiva. The ‘Mahadeepa’ at Lingaraj temple is expected to be raised at 10 pm tonight, a priest said.
At the Dhabaleswar Temple in Cuttack district, the ‘Mahadeepa’ is scheduled to be raised atop the temple at 1 am.
“We have deployed around 41 platoons of police, and mobilised over 200 officers of different ranks at Lingaraj temple,” Bhubaneswar DCP Jagmohan Meena told reporters.
Special arrangements have been made for evening and nighttime, he said Similarly, devotees from Gajapati, Rayagada and Kandhamal districts, and some adjoining districts of Andhra Pradesh visited Mahendragiri hill in Gajapati early in the morning.
Gajapati SP Jatindra Kumar Panda said five platoons of police have been deployed at the hills in view of the Maha Shivaratri.
Governor Hari Babu Kambhampati, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and Leader of Opposition Naveen Patnaik extended Maha Shivaratri greetings to the people. PTI BBM BBM SOM
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