AGARTALA, June 8 (TIWN): The seven-day – long Kharchi puja, the traditional festival of Tripura will begin from 5th July to 11 July at Old Agartala, 13 km from the city. A meeting was held presided over by Praitra Kar, Deputy Speaker of Legislative Assembly at Geetanjali community hall. DM west Abhishek Singh and other senior officials from civil, police and various department was present in the meeting. A core community was formed as Mr. Kar as chairman besides an executive committee and additional committee was formed.

The puja starts with a holy dip of the idols of the fourteen Hindu deities-Hara, Uma, Hari, Maa, Bani, Kumar, Ganesh, Brahma, Prithi, Ganga, Abdi, Kamesh and Himadri in Howrah River before dawn.According to history, the mother of King Trilochan (a king of Tripura) had saved the fourteen Gods who were being chased by a wild buffalo. The king's mother had gone to bathe in Maharani River. The Gods killed the beast with her help.

Happy with the king's mother, the fourteen Gods visited King Trilochan's palace, which was in Udaipur (one of the 51 holy places). The royal family offered puja to the fourteen deities-Hara or Shiva-the destroyer in the Hindu trinity, Uma or Durga-the consort of Shiva, Hari or Vishnu-the preserver, Maa or Laxmi-the consort of Vishnu and the goddess of prosperity, Vani or Saraswati-the goddess of learning, Kumar or Kartik-the god of war, Ganesh-the god of wisdom, Brahma-the creator, Abadhi-the God of ocean or water, Chandra or the Moon, Ganga, Agni, Kama and Himadri or the Himalaya. They also sacrifice wild buffalos.