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| Ramnavmi celebrated with religious fervour and gaiety | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, OCT 16: Like other parts of the country Ramnavmi—birthday of Lord Shri Rama was celebrated here with religious fervour and gaiety.
The City of Temples wore a festive look as the entire city was well decorated with saffron flags, buntings and banners on this auspicious occasion.
However, the temples of the city witnessed heavy rush today as thousands of the devotees thronged the temples to perform prayers and obeisance on this auspicious occasion.
More than 50,000 devotees today visited Bahu Fort to have ‘darshan’ of the deity of Kali Mata installed in the premises of the Fort.
Chanting slogans in praise of Mata, hundreds of devotees were seen lined up in the premises of the temple very much before dawn. The police deployed at Bahu- Fort today had very tough time to control the unprecedent rush of the devotees at the Shrine.
The temple of Checchi Mata, situated on the Jammu-Pathankote National H ighway near Samba also witnessed heavy rush today.
About 30,000 devotees from different parts of the region visited the temple and had darshan of the deities.
The nine day long Navratra festival celebrations concluded on Mahanavmi today with the immersion of Saakh and idols of Goddess Durga in the River Tawi by devotees.
The Tawi Ghats at Bikram Chowk, Har Ki Paudi and Bahu Fort wore a festive look with hundreds of devotees including men, women and children waiting for their turn to immerse the idols and Saakh in the water.
People came in long processions from different parts of the city with the idols of Goddesses on their heads for immersion.
There was also a heavy rush of the devotees in the various temples of Godess Durga in Jammu region from early in the morning today as hundreds of the devotees thronged these temples to pay their obeisance.
BOX Itemmmm
Kanajk Poojan: A diminishing ritual or a status stigma?
Gathering sufficient number of little girls (kanjaks) for the Navratra puja appears to have become the toughest task of the nine-day sacred period.
The problem stares people in the face on this day when they want little girls, preferably below the age of 5, for the puja.
As many people perform the puja to mark the conclusion of Navratras on asthmi today, many could be seen waiting in queues outside houses where little girls went in groups.
The problem is even more severe in posh localities in the city where residents are reluctant to send their children to other houses.
"This time it was even tougher than the last year to find small girls for pooja. Even as I personally visited several houses yesterday itself and requested them to send their daughters for the kanjak puja, I had to wait for more than one and a half hour after preparing the Prasad for the girls. It was only after I requested my neighbours to send the kanjaks who had come to their house that I managed to get seven girls together,” said Renu Verma, a Panjtirthi resident.
The kanjak pooja is performed on two days, ashtmi and navmi, by people. For the prayer, a certain minimum number of girls, seven, nine or eleven , along with one boy, are made to partake the prasad prepared by the host.
“Earlier, it was so easy to find them and they used to move around in groups. All one had to do was just step out of the house and you would find a group of girls. But today I faced such a problem that ultimately I went to our nearby temple at around 10.30 am, where, too, it was not easy to find girls as many people there, belonging to BPL
groups, had dressed up their little boys in frocks to be presented as kanjaks to earn some money,” complained Priya Gupta , a resident of Jain Bazar.
In posh localities, where people are reluctant to send their kids, the task is even tougher. In many cases, people even send the prasad, along with gifts, to the house of a friend or neighbour who has a little girl.
Performing the pooja, too, is becoming a costlier affair as the quality of gifts given to the kanjaks is changing. The market offers a wide variety of gift items like toys, stationery, purses, etc.
“I was quite surprised to see the variety. I picked up beautiful purses and
filled them with chocolates. It did cost me a little more, but then it is also a status symbol,” Seema said.
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