Sea of Orange descends as around 2 lakh kanwariyas offer Jala Abhishek at Baba Baidynath

Deoghar/Dumka: As expected the first Somvaari during the auspicious month of Shravan turned the Baba Baidynath Dham in Deoghar and Basukinath Dham in Dumka district into a sea of orange as kanwariyas turned up to offer their ‘jalaabhishek’ to Lord Shiva at these two places.

A report from Deoghar said that till 5pm 1.62 lakh kanwariyas had offered their obeisance at Baba Baidyanath Dham temple. Such was the enthusiasm among the devotees that they had lined up since midnight from Kumaitha which is located atleast 10 kilometers from the main temple and waited for their turn to offer their jala-abhishek. Till afternoon the line came upto Nandan Pahar while at present it was till the B Ed College Mode. 

The officials at the temple management committee said that till the main doors of the temple are closed for the night it is expected that the turnout will easily cross the two lakh mark. Deoghar DC Rahul Kumar Sinha and SP Narendra Kumar Singh since wee hours of the day were spotted keeping an eye on the route line and looked into the security arrangements. The duo also instructed their subordinate staff, other officials and police personnel to ensure that devotees do not face any trouble during darshan.

For the safety of the people a team of the NDRF has been also deployed at Shivganga while round the clock cleanliness was being maintained in the mela premises. Meanwhile a report from Dumka said that as soon as the doors of Basukinath Dham popularly known as Faujdari Baba was opened for the kanwariyas the entire area erupted with the slogans of ‘Bol Bum’.

Dumka DC Rajeshwari B, SP Y S Ramesh and DDC Varun Ranjan since early morning has reached the temple and inquired into the security and other arrangements which had been made for the devotees keeping into the account their huge turnout. Official sources at the Basuknath Mela Management Committee said that since the doors of the temple were opened till 4pm 92,000 kanwariyas have offered their ‘jala-abhishek’ and another 20,000 are still waiting in the queue.

Sources said from different sources the temple has received Rs 1.21 lakh as a donation and 78 grams of silver while the temple management also sold one silver coin of 10 grams and six silver coins of 5 grams.