Sylhet Bureau :
‘Kumari Puja’, the pure girl-mother image of the goddess, was held in Sylhet on the eighth day of the autumn Durga Puja.
The puja was held in a grand ceremony at the Durga temple adjacent to the ‘Sri Sri Mahalakshmi Bhairavi Griba Mahapeethasthan’, one of the 51 Satipeethas located in Jainpur, Gotatikor, Dakshinsurama, in the city on Tuesday morning. On this day, 6-year-old Kumari Mata Annapurna Chakraborty Ayushi was worshipped as Kumari Mata by the Peethasthan Management Committee.
Annapurna, a student of the nursery class of Golden Future Academy and High School in Silam, is the younger of the two children of Bibhas Ranjan Chakraborty and Hepi Chakraborty of Silam Brahmanpara in Dakshinsurama Upazila of Sylhet. The couple’s elder son, Bivakar Chakraborty, is a 5th grade student of the local Chaker Bazar Sapravi.
The venue was crowded with people since Tuesday morning on the occasion of the Kumari Puja. Ignoring the scorching heat, Kumari Mata from different places in Sylhet division Thousands of devotees gathered in Gotatikar and surrounding areas in the hope of getting a glimpse of the mother. Before the puja began, the goddess Kumari was adorned with various clothes and cosmetics in various attires and ornaments. A red ‘Trinayan’ was painted on her forehead, and a garland of white flowers was placed on her head. With a garland of blood around her neck, the goddess Annapurna was placed on the goddess seat at around 10:30 in the morning. At this time, the priest Harinarayan Chakraborty began the main rituals of the puja by chanting Vedic mantras with the sound of the uludhvani and the conch shell. The victory chants of Goddess Durga given by the devotees present created a different and enchanting atmosphere at the place of puja. The devotees returned home with utmost satisfaction after worshipping the goddess Annapurna in the form of a mother during the puja that lasted for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Organizer Apart from the volunteers of the committee, various local social, cultural and political representatives and other dignitaries were seen actively maintaining order at the place of worship. Meanwhile, the president of the organizing committee, Shibbrata Bhowmik Chandan, and the general secretary, Janardan Chakraborty Mintu, expressed their gratitude to everyone who made this worship ceremony peaceful.
