Cuttack, Sept. 25: The Puja committees at Chandni Chowk and Alisha Bazar here are preparing to offer quintals of fish as bhog to the goddess on Navami, a part of tradition that traces its history to nearly 200 years.

This bhog will be distributed among thousands of devotees.

The Chandni Chowk Puja Committee took over the responsibility of organising Durga Puja in the locality from the Darpani royal family more than 70 years ago.

'Offering fish to the goddess on Navami and distribution of the bhog among the people have been a long-standing tradition of our puja,' said Puja committee president Pratap Kishore Singh.

This year, the committee will offer 500kg fish to Goddess Durga.

The tradition of offering fish as bhog is said to have started with the inception of Durga Puja in the mrinamayee murti (clay idol) form in a thatched house at the Asta Sambhu Temple in the area by the Duttas, a Bengali family, in 1817.

The puja shifted to the present mandap in the temple's vicinity when it subsequently received the royal family's patronage. By the end of the 19th century, it was turned into a sarbajanin (community) Puja by pooling in the support of people of 10 localities ( dusah sahis).

In the 1940s, the Darpani royal family handed over the puja's responsibility to the people of the locality, and with it, the distribution of fish offered as bhog to the goddess is said to have come into vogue.

'This year, we are making arrangements to cook five quintals of fish as bhog, which will then be distributed to all the local people, who donate to organise the Puja,' Singh said.

'The fish bhog will also be distributed to the shops and other business establishments in our area who contribute generously for the Puja,' he said.

The committee is spending Rs 14 lakh for the festival this year, and most of the money comes as donation from residents and business establishments in the area.

'The fish bhog has been a part of our Durga Puja rituals every year,' said Chandni Chowk resident Durga Madhav Mishra.

Prem Prusty, a resident of Alisha Bazar, where also fish is offered to the goddess at the mandap on Navami, echoed Mishra.

'This year, we are making arrangements to cook and distribute five quintals of fish bhog to over 5,000 people,' said Alisha Bazar Puja Committee president Kishore Kumar Mohanty.

'We have a dining area, where any person can come and have the bhog on Navami evening. Thousands of people turn up for it and this has been a tradition for over 50 years now,' Mohanty said.

'We also parcel the bhog for those, who want to take it home,' he said.

This year, in a fresh new development for a Puja committee in the city, parcels of fish bhog for two persons will be provided to those who make prior bookings by depositing Rs 30 with the Puja committee and collecting their receipts.

The committee has a total budget of Rs 14 lakh this year.