All shiva temple across the state have witnessed the rush of thousands of devotees on the holy day of Maha Shivratri. The devotees have started thronging Shiva temples from early morning to offer prayers to Lord Shiva.
The ‘Mahadeepa’ of Lord Lingaraj will be raised atop the temple at around 10 pm in Bhubaneswar today. The rituals at the Shrine began early for the Jagar Jatra.
The Lingaraj temple administration has made special arrangements for Maha Shivratri. There will be various mandaps where the devotees can offer their prayers and perform rituals.
The security arrangements has also been made to maintain law and order around the temple.
The administration has arranged barricades for orderly viewing. Devotees line up from Gangaymuna Street for the darshan of Lord Lingaraj.
In view of the heavy gathering of devotees, the Commissionerate Police has deployed around 32 platoons of police force to manage law and order and crowd control.
Parking facilities as been made in 13 places for the devotees.
Similarly, a huge rush of devotees has been witnessed at the famous Dhabaleswar temple in Cuttack and Lokanath shrine in Puri.
Today, Baba Dhabaleswar will wear fragrant flowers to let the devotees have darshan in ’Badasinghara Besha’ As per the schedule, ‘Sankhudi Bhoga’ will be offered to the Lord by noon and in the evening, Shivratri rituals of Baba Dhabaleswar will begin.
Anticipating a huge rush of devotees on the occasion of Maha Shivratri, restrictions have been clamped on the use of Jhula or the hanging bridge and boats. A temporary road has been created to facilitate the devotees to reach the Dhabaleswar temple.
The Mahadeep in Lokanath temple will be raised around 3am to 4am.
Ms Kalinga