Durga Puja fervour has gripped Odisha, particularly the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.
The puja committees have incorporated several thematic elements, such as Operation Sindoor and the Mahabharata War, to decorate the puja mandaps.
More than 300 puja mandaps have come up in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. While Cuttack is known for its medhas (tableaus), Bhubaneswar is famous for its high puja pandals with decorated gates.
The millennium city of Cuttack is famous for its extravagance and the amount of silver and gold used to decorate Durga idols.
This year, 176 puja pandals have come up in this silver city, with 34 adorned in magnificent chandi medha (silver tableaus)— a dazzling display of Odisha’s filigree work.
Durga Puja pandal at Saheed Nagar in Bhubaneswar
Pravat Tripathy, the general secretary of the Cuttack Sahar (Town) Puja Committee, told The Telegraph: “Earlier, Durga Pujas were confined to the temples in Odisha. We had our pujas at the Temple known as Peetha Puja. That’s continuing. But the Durga Pujas in the form of mandaps, idols made of earth and later bringing the prana pratishtha, started in Cuttack in the 15th century. Later, it spread to other parts of Odisha.”
Tripathy said: “The Durga Puja started in Cuttack 500 years ago by a disciple of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the Hindu saint from Bengal, continues with enhanced grandeur. The puja was started in 1517 by the Banerjee Family, which had come along with saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu from Nabadwip. Now, Cuttack is the nerve centre of Durga Pujas, even though other cities have also come up with huge pandals during Durga Puja.”
The puja was started at Binod Bihari Mandap in Cuttack and it was converted into a community puja by residents in 1890. All the idols are prepared from red mud, vegetables and flowers, besides a local fruit for decorating the deity. The descendants of the Banerjee family are still active members of the Pujas.
The puja committee also claimed that when famine gripped Odisha in 1885, the Puja was not stopped, and it was not even stopped during the Spanish flu of 1919.
“Durga Puja in Cuttack is no less than the puja in Calcutta and other parts of India. Come and enjoy,” said Tripathy, adding that after Independence in 1947, the festivals got more prominence.
“The puja committee that began the trend of bedecking the idols of the goddess and subsidiary deities with silver began in 1956 by the Choudhury Bazar Puja Committees of Cuttack,” said another organiser.
In Bhubaneswar, the major attractions include the Saheed Nagar Puja, Jharapada, Rasulgarh, Nayapalli and Station Bazar Durga Puja mandaps.
“We always come with a different theme in our puja mandaps, In our puja mandaps, we showcased the scene from Mahabharat to India’s growing powers in the form of Operation Sindoor,’’ said Sachhi Nandan Nayak, the secretary of Saheed Nagar Durga Puja Committee.
While old Bhubaneswar near the Lingaraj temple focuses on the traditional method of pujas, the newer Bhubaneswar showcases the grandeur. Around 185 puja mandaps have come up this year.
On the other hand, in Puri, the Durga pujas are being organised this year like every year. While people throng to the Puri Shree Jagannath Temple to do pujas in the Maa Bimala Temple (Manifestation of Goddess Durga), several puja mandaps have also been erected for community pujas. For tourists, it’s a visit to Puri as they can enjoy the traditional Durga Puja mandaps in the pilgrim city and enjoy the fun of the beach too.