Tripura: CM inaugurates Kharchi Puja
Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha today inaugurated the weeklong Kharchi Puja at Chaturdash Devata Bari Temple in Old Agartala. Minister for Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs, Transport, Tourism Sushanta Chowdhury, Minister for Tribal Welfare, Handloom, Handicrafts & Sericulture, Statistics Bikash Debbarma, Mayor of Agartala Municipal Corporation Dipak Majumder, MLA of 05-Khayerpur Constituency Ratan Chakraborty and other dignitaries were present in the inaugural ceremony of the festival.
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.
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.
