The weeklong Kharchi Puja at Chaturdash Devata Bari Temple in Old Agartala will begin from June 26. Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha will inaugurate the festival. Minister for Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs, Transport, Tourism Sushanta Chowdhury, Mayor of Agartala Municipal Corporation Dipak Majumder and other dignitaries will be present in the inaugural ceremony of the festival.

 Addressing a press conference today MLA of 05-Khayerpur Constituency Ratan Chakraborty said that preparations are going on in full swing to make the weeklong Kharchi Puja at Chaturdash Devata Bari Temple in Old Agartala a success. Keeping eyes on the 7 day long Kharchi, preparation is on peak at Chaturdasha Devta Bari Temple premises at Khayerpur. Kharchi Puja is a weeklong festival. The rituals are conducted by tribal priest and the main priest is called ‘Chantai.’

The festival lasts for seven days and 14 gods are worshipped at the Chaturdasha temple near Old Agartala. The 14 deities are known as the Chaturdasha Devata and are Lord Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswathi, Kartikeya, Ganesha, Earth, Ganga, Agni, Kama, Himavan and Varuna.

On Kharchi Puja, the gods are taken out from the temple and carried to be washed in holy water from a stream then taken back to the temple. Kharchi is derived from ‘khya’ which means ‘earth’ and the festival marks the cleansing of Ama Pechi which is the female cycle of the earth godess.

The main feature of this festival in Tripura is that, whether the festival is basically tribal or not, all people regardless tribal and non-tribal join the festival in a joyous mood and become part and parcel of it.

Chaturdas Devata is a family deity of the Maharajas of Tripura. Since the merger of the State with the Indian Union on October 15, 1949 the State government is maintaining the temple. Though the princely days are gone still all practices of the royal days are followed in observing the festival as well as performing the daily puja.