Only 2 hands of Goddess Durga visible at this puja in Tripura

Agartala, Sep 25 (PTI) Only two hands of Goddess Durga idol are visible at the Durga puja held adjacent to the Ujjayanta Palace here, a priest said.

The idol is also offered meat and fish along with fruits as prasad during the Durga puja, he said.

"The Durga idol is only 12 feet with only two hands visible during the Durga puja festivities," chief priest Jayanta Bhattacharjee told PTI.

On the worship of the two-hand Durga idol, Bhattacharjee said previously, the Manikya dynasty used to worship a 10-hand Durga idol, but it was Birchandra Manikya who started the worship of two-hand Durga after Queen Sulakshna Devi fainted on seeing the 10-hand deity in Amarpur in Tripura's Gomati district around 550 years ago.

He said the 'prasad' to be offered to the deity is unique, as meat and fish, along with fruits, during the Durga puja days, which has been a ritual at Durgabari puja for the past 148 years.

The chief priest said another thing special about the Durgabari Durga puja is the gun salute offered to the deity by jawans of Tripura State Rifles as a mark of respect under the merger agreement.

It was Krishna Kishore Manikya who first started Durga puja at Chaklarushanabad in present-day Bangladesh around 600 years ago, Bhattacharjee said.

"Over the years, Durga puja was organised by the Manikya dynasty in different locations from Bangladesh to Tripura till the merger agreement was signed with the Union of India in 1949. As per the agreement, the state government has started running the temple," he said.

The Durga puja at the Durgabari temple located adjacent to the royal palace here will enter its 149th celebrations at this present location this year, he said.

The chief priest said the chief minister, ministers, MLAs and common people visit the Durgabari temple during Durga puja.

This year, Durga Puja will be celebrated from September 28 to October 2. PTI PS RG