Devotees on their way to Dhabaleswar on the occasion of Bada Osha on Wednesday. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Nov. 5: Nearly three lakh devotees today visited the famous Shiv shrine at Dhabaleswar, located on an island on the Mahanadi river in the city, on the occasion of Bada Osha.

Bada Osha is commonly known as a fasting festival where the chief programme of the celebrations mainly goes to penance and sacrifice for a special grace to be received during the holy month of the festival.

Adequate arrangements were made by the temple and district administrations in view of the heavy footfall of devotees on the last auspicious day of the holy month of the Kartik. The rituals at the shrine began early in the morning and nearly one lakh devotees had congregated on the Mahanadi patha from last night to have an early glimpse of badasringar vesha of the Lord. The gaja bhoga (cake prasad) that is offered to the devotees is also a major attraction.

“For the last eight years we have been visiting the shrine on the occasion of Bada Osha,” said Namita Sahu, a devotee from Bhubaneswar. She said special arrangements were made for the devotees, who had to queue up before the barricades that were installed for regulating the rush.

“We had to wait for nearly two hours to have a darshan of the Lord as a large number of devotees had turned up on the occasion of Bada Osha,” said Rajkumar Rath, another devotee from Cuttack.

He said the district administration had made provisions for life jackets for the safety of devotees while crossing the Mahanadi river from Cuttack. Special teams of Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force as well as fire services were assigned at multiple locations in and around the Mahanadi riverside. Around 15 platoons of police were deployed to maintain law and order as well as for security of the devotees coming to the sacred shrine.

“As many as 150 senior officials were deployed to streamline the rush at the sacred shrine, while CCTV cameras were also installed at vital locations,” said Gurudas Kundu, superintendent of police (Cuttack rural).

He said that as most of the devotees enter the temple via the suspension bridge after crossing the river, adequate steps were taken to control the rush. “As part of a detailed strategy, around 800 devotees were allowed to cross and enter the temple through the suspension bridge for regulating the rush in and around the temple complex,” Kundu said.