AGARTALA, Oct 20 (TIWN): The age old celebration of the Durga puja at Durga bari temple began with Guard of honour on the occasion of Mahasahti on Monday. The idol of Goddess durga of durga bari temple is widely known among people for its distinctive structure of the Goddess durga with only two hands at her back.

The idol is distinctive because, mythology says that Goddess Durga won over the evil buffalo demon mahisasura with ten hands. Durga puja celebrations at Agartala Durga bari caters huge crowd of devotees at the temple as it is believed to be one of the sacred place.

The puja started nearly 200 years ago by King Radha Kishore Manikya Bahadur in the Durgabari premises. It still enjoys state patronage with the state administration sanctioning lakhs of Rupees for the puja every year.

Interestingly, the goddess has only two arms at the Durgabari Temple where the rituals are 200 years old and is currently organized by the state's Communist government. In the early nineteenth century, Krishna Kishore Manikya Bahadur's queen fainted after seeing the goddess with ten arms.

Thereafter, on the advice of priests, Durga has only two hands visible while the remaining eight are hidden behind her back.

The Durga puja at the Durgabari temple is funded and organized by the state government and the district magistrate of West Tripura is the main participant of the puja.

When Tripura signed the instrument of accession with the Government of India on October 15, 1949, it was agreed that the daily work at the Durgabari temple, Tripureswari Kali Temple at Udaipur in Gomati district and some other temples would be funded and looked after by the state.

Organized by the ruling Left Front government, the five–day long Durga puja festivities in Tripura begins with a guard of honour by state security forces to the goddess at the Durgabari, a royal temple of the erstwhile Manikya kings.