Kolhapur: Lakhs of devotees from Maharashtra and neighbouring states attended annual Lord Joytiba fair organised on occasion of Chaitra Purnima on Tuesday at Wadi-Ratnagiri in Panhala tehsil of the district, some 20 Km away from here.
Devotees from Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara as well as from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, arrived here for the fair.
A pooja of deity Lord Jyotiba was performed early this morning, followed by official pooja and ‘abhishek’ between 0500 to 0600 hours by Panhala tehsildar. At noon, district collector Amol Yedge, superintendent of police Mahendra Pandit performed pooja of first ‘Sasan kathi’ (bamboo stick) of Inam Padali in Satara district, which is a revered symbol of Lord Jyotiba.
Then, a procession of 96 traditional ‘Sasan Kathis’, decorated colourful clothes, followed by ‘palkhi’ of
idol of Jyotiba was taken out from Jyotirling temple to Goddess Yamaidevi, amidst chants of ‘Jyotibacha Navan Changbhal’ and ‘Yamaicha Navan Changbhal’, in which lakhs of devotees participated.
After religious ceremony at Yamai Devi temple, the ‘palkhi’ procession would return to Jyotiba temple at around 2000 hours in evening.
Maharashtra State Road Transport (MSRT) has made arrangement of total 300 ST buses to ferry devotees to Jyotiba Dongar (hilltop). It has also made a special arrangement for devotees at Panchanganga river ghat in city.
Apart from this, Kolhapur Municipal Transport (KMT) has deployed its buses to ferry devotees up to the temple point free-of-cost.
Also, elaborate security arrangement has been made for the fair with deployment of heavy police force.