AGARTALA, Oct 22 (TIWN): The age old tradition of Buffalo sacrifice at Durga Bari temple on Thursday marked the celebration of MahaNavami-the last day of the Durga Puja.

On Maha Navami Goddess Durga is worshipped as Mahisasuramardini which means the Annihilator of the Buffalo Demon. It is believed that on Maha Navami day Durga killed the demon Mahishasura.

To mark the victory of Goddess Durga over the demon Mahishasura, a buffalo is sacrificed in front of Goddess Durga every year at Durga Bari. The Buffalo is sacrifice after proper consignment with the state government.

Amidst huge crowd of devotees, the buffalo was killed  to mark the occasion of Maha Navami. The buffalo was sacrificed at the premises of the Durga bari temple at 6 in the morning. Once in a year on the day of Mahanavami, a buffalo is sacrificed to Goddess Durga to celebrate the victory of the Goddess over the demon Mahisashura.

Thousands of people thronged to the Durga bari temple to offer prayers to Goddess Durga.

The animal sacrifice was done at 6 in the morning. Large number of crowd was witnessed at the premises of the Durga bari temple to offer prayers to Goddess Durga.  Durga Puja is the biggest festival in the Eastern part of India when lakhs of people take on the streets to see the Durga idols and marquees.

The morning rush was seen even on the other days of the festival since the day of Sasti. People gathered to offer morning prayers as the rituals began with animal sacrifice.

In Tripura many puja’s have been organised with diverse themes, lightings and decorations wooing the people.

However, 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. 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.

Though patronizing animal sacrifice has attracted the wrath of animal rights activists, the temple committees are not ready to bring any changes in the centuries-old rituals. It is believed that Durga puja rituals would be incomplete without animal sacrifice. The sacrifice of animal lives is a universal phenomenon associated with religion since time immemorial and stopping it is not in the hands of human beings.