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Week-long Mandi Mahashivratri festivities begin

Published

10 years ago

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Mandi: The week-long Mahashivratri celebrations began in this Himachal Pradesh town Wednesday with religious fervour.

The centuries-old festival is celebrated with a difference in this town, popularly known as Chhoti Kashi, as it sees the congregation of over 150 hill “gods and goddesses”. The Mahashivratri festivities ended in other northern states Tuesday.

“Over 200 deities have been sent invitation to participate in Mahashivratri. Around 120 of them have arrived and others will join the festivity in a day or two,” Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Kadam, chief organiser of the festival, told.

The festivities will continue till Feb 24.

Like the week-long Kullu Dussehra festivities, Mandi’s Mahashivratri also sees a congregation, in which there are both divine and temporal aspects.

The tradition of celebrating Mahashivratri began in 1526 when the town was founded during the rule of Ajbar Sen. He “invited” all local deities to mark the founding of the new town.

During the first day of the festival, Lord Madho Rai, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and the chief deity, leads the procession.

The assembled deities follow him in beautifully decorated palanquins, as per protocol, amid beating of drums and playing of “shehnais” and assemble at the Bhutnath temple here.

Three such processions, locally called “Jaleb”, would be taken out on the opening, middle and concluding days of the festival, organisers said.

Mandi, located on the Chandigarh-Manali national highway-21, is dotted with more than 80 temples built in typical hill architecture.

The prominent temples are those of Bhutnath, Triloki Nath, Jagannath, Tarna Devi and Jalpa Devi.

The rulers of Mandi state were devotees of Lord Shiva.

Legend has it that ruler Sen (1499-1534) saw in his dreams a cow offering milk to an idol of Lord Shiva. His dream became a reality.

This prompted the ruler to construct a temple in 1526 – the Bhutnath temple – dedicated to Lord Shiva.

The foundation of Mandi town was laid at the same time, and Sen later shifted his capital here.

Since then, the annual assembly of deities from hundreds of village temples has become a tradition.

After the abolition of princely states, the administration has been inviting the deities.

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What monkey fled with a bag containing evidence in it: Read full story

Published

2 years ago

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May 5, 2022

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The court, generally, considers a person who commit a crime and the one who destroys the evidence, as criminals in the eyes of law. But what if an animal destroys the evidence of a crime committed by a human.

In a peculiar incident in Rajasthan, a monkey fled away with the evidence collected by the police in a murder case. The stolen evidence included the murder weapon (a blood-stained knife).

The incident came to light when the police appeared before the court and they had to provide the evidence in the hearing.

The hearing was about the crime which took place in September 2016, in which a person named Shashikant Sharma died at a primary health center under Chandwaji police station. After the body was found, the deceased’s relatives blocked the Jaipur-Delhi highway, demanding an inquiry into the matter.

Following the investigation, the police had arrested Rahul Kandera and Mohanlal Kandera, residents of Chandwaji in relation to the murder. But, when the time came to produce the evidence related to the case, it was found that the police had no evidence with them because a monkey had stolen it from them.

In the court, the police said that the knife, which was the primary evidence, was also taken by the monkey. The cops informed that the evidence of the case was kept in a bag, which was being taken to the court.

The evidence bag contained the knife and 15 other important evidences. However, due to the lack of space in the malkhana, a bag full of evidence was kept under a tree, which led to the incident.

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