‘Pratham somvari’ witnesses heavy rush of devotees

Jamshedpur: The ‘pratham somvari’ (first Monday) of the holy month of Shravan witnessed heavy rush of devotees at different shiva temples in the Steel City and adjoining Adityapur.
People, cutting across all age groups, started coming to the temples from early hours to offer prayers. They devotees performed rituals amidst recitation of Vedic hyms by priests as chants of ‘Har Har Mahadev’ reverberating around the temples.They offered ‘gangajal’ (water from the Ganges), curd, milk, honey, ‘bel patra’ (vine leaves), coconut, banana, ‘dhatura’, bhaang (paste made from leaves of cannabis plants) and sweets to the deity.

People jostled to get close to the sanctum sanctorum of the temples to give offerings.
"Our members were tasked with crowd management to ensure everybody offer prayers smoothly but some young devotees out of excitement attempted to jump queue," said Manokamna temple committee functionary Sanjay Tiwary.
At Pardih Kali temple, volunteers had to make frequent appeal to the visitors not to break queue. "The desire to be part of the rudrabhishek ritual at the temple drove many towards the sanctum sanctorum, resulting in crowding at times," said temple priest Ramesh Upadhyay.
The shiva temples looked magnificent decorated with colourful LED lights and flowers. "Lights were on Sunday itself and will be lit the entire month," said Shiva Sani temple committee president Sonu Jaiswal.
Several temple committees organised kalash yatra to mark the first Monday of Shravan. Health minister Banna Gupta joined the yatra of Shri Shri Somnath Shiv Mandir in Dimna, Mango.
Several temples distributed ‘bhog’ (offering to god) after evening prayers while some organised ‘bhajan sandhya’. Pashupatinath temple, Golmuri, president Vijay Damai said since 2002 the temple has been organising ‘bhajan sandhya’ and ‘gaurishankar sringar’ in the evening of the ‘Shravan somvar’.
Meanwhile, devotees said the cost of flowers, garlands and sweets have increased by about 20% in comparison to the pre-pandemic period.
In Adityapur, Pauranik Shiv Temple in Dindli Bazar and Loco Colony Shiv Temple witnessed large turnout of the crowd. Jayda temple in Chandil, one of the prominent temples of Lord shiva, reported huge congregation of devotees on the day.
Meanwhile, miscreants snatched a gold chain from a woman devotee in Birsanagar. Uma Pandey was walking to a nearby shiva temple when two bike-borne men came from behind and snatched away her chain.
The incident occurred on Chandrapath Road near Loyola BEd College in Birsanagar police station limits early hours on Monday. A complaint has been lodged in this regard.