Chandrabadni Devi temple fair begins

Tribune News Service

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mussoorie, March 21

The Chandrabadni Devi temple fair began with religious fervour and enthusiasm on the beginning of Navratras near Devprayag today. It would conclude on March 28.

Chief Minister Harish Rawat was scheduled to inaugurate the festival but he could not make it because he was busy with the ongoing Assembly session. Instead Congress leader Ranjit Rawat inaugurated the festival amid chanting of vedic mantras and prayers.

Education Minister Mantri Prasad Naithani, Parliamentary Secretary from Almora Manoj Tiwari, Lansdowne MLA Dilip Singh Rawat and former Cabinet minister Shoorvir Singh Sajwan also attended the function.

Spiritual head of Parmarth Niketan Swami Chidananda said Devprayag should be included in the Ardh Kumbh zone so that devotees attending the mela could also pay obeisance at the Chandrabadni temple. He solicited support for the clean Ganga and Swacch Bharat campaigns. He demanded linking of villages around the temple with the Swachh Bharat campaign under which toilets are to be constructed in every village household here.

Chidananda said Ganga aarti would soon be performed at Devprayag on the lines of being performed at Rishikesh.

Devotees take dip in Ganga on first Navratra

Haridwar: A large number of devotees took a dip in the Ganga and paid obeisance at revered shrines of Mata Mansa Devi, Mata Chandi Devi, Maya Devi, Mata Vaishno Devi, Mata Sheetla Devi, Sati Kund, Kankhal, Sati temple, Daksheswar shrine, Kankhal, Shri Sidhpeeth Dakshin Kaleshwar Temple, and other temples in Haridwar on the first day of the Navratra festival today.

Pundits, saints and devotees performed special rituals to deity Shail Putri, considered an incarnation of Goddess Parvati. Since wee hours this morning, devotees bathed in the Ganga at Brahma Kund, Har-ki-Pauri, and adjacent ghats and then moved to various shrines for prayers. In anticipation of a heavy rush of devotees, temple management committees and the police had made elaborate security arrangements. Morning and evening ‘aartis’ are drawing a large number of devotees.