MERU JATRA FESTIVAL
SOURCE:- IAS PARLIAMENT
- Meru Jatra marks the end of the 21-day-long festival of penance named ‘Danda Nata’.
- Danda Nata is celebrated in the month of 'Chaitra'.
- Danda as the name implies, is self-inflicted pain, which the danduas (people who participate in the festival) undergo to pay their obeisance to the lord Kali.
- It is also a form of worshipping the lord Shiva and his consort Parvati.
- The origin of the festival is generally traced to 8th and 9th AD after the decadence of Buddhism in Orissa.
- On the occasion of Mahavishub Sankranti thousands of devotees used to gather at the Tara Tarini hill shrine and other temples.
- Tara Tarini hill shrine, located at a hilltop on banks of the Rushikulya river, is a major centre of Shakti worship in Odisha.
- The twin goddesses Tara and Tarini represent one Shakti and are the main deity of Ganjam district (Odisha).
- Mahavishub Sankranti is the start of the Odia New Year.
- Odisha administrations has banned the famous Chaitra Jatra festival at Tara Tarini hill shrine as a precautionary measure against Covid-19 infection.
