Times News Network
Kanpur: Durga Puja celebrations peaked in Kanpur on Saturday. On the occasion of Maha Saptami, the seventh day of the festival, large idols of Goddess Durga were installed at around 370 pandals across the city with traditional rituals. Devotees thronged the pandals to offer prayers and seek blessings amid devotional songs. Cultural programmes and special bhog were also organised at several places.The Sri Barwari Durga Puja Committee, one of the oldest Durga Puja organisers in the city, continued its more than 160-year-old tradition at Adarsh Bang Vidyalaya on Mall Road. The committee is credited with introducing grand-scale Durga Puja celebrations in Kanpur.Unlike several modern pandals that feature elaborate, theme-based decorations, the Barwari committee places emphasis on traditional rituals.The committee brings artisans and sculptors from Kolkata to create and paint its traditional clay idol. The pandal resonates with the beats of the dhak, the sound of conch shells, and devotional music during morning and evening prayers. Bengali cultural programmes are organised later in the evening, making the venue a major gathering point for the city’s Bengali community as well as thousands of other residents.At Armapur Estate, the Sarvajanik Durga Puja Committee observed the 84th installation of the Goddess’s idol. The priest conducted the Saptami Puja rituals and women devotees participated in large numbers. Similar religious ceremonies and cultural programmes were organised at other pandals and temples across the city, drawing devotees throughout the day.
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