SRINAGAR, May 28: Hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits on Sunday paid their obeisance at the famous Ragnya Devi temple in Ganderbal district and celebrated the annual Kheer Bhawani mela.
Nestled in the shade of mammoth Chinar trees in the central Kashmir district, the temple witnessed massive crowds of devotees, most of them Kashmiri Pandits, who made the journey from across the country.
The devotees, walking barefoot, carried rose petals and offered tribute to the goddess as men took a dip in the stream close to the shrine.
As the devotees jostled with each other to move closer to the main temple complex, the chants of hymns echoed through the temple compound and paid obeisance to the deity while offering milk and kheer (rice pudding) at the sacred spring within the complex.
The mela, a symbol of communal harmony, passed off peacefully as the administration had made elaborate arrangements, including security related, for the devotees.
Gudi Zutshi, a devotee from Jammu, said their ‘pooja’ is incomplete without visiting the temple shrine on the occasion of the annual mela held on the birthday of the deity. “She is our deity. It is an important day for us and without her, our pooja is incomplete, so we have to come here to celebrate her birthday. The deity has taken the form of water here. The colour of the stream keeps on changing when something happens,” she said. It is believed that the colour of the sacred spring water which flows below the temple indicates the situation in the Valley.
While most of the colours do not have any particular significance, the black or darkish colour of the water is believed to be an indication of inauspicious times for Kashmir. However, the water in the spring was clean and milky white this year.
