By- Journalist Banibrata Datta : A sense of deep fear and uncertainty prevailed among the devotees in Tripura Sundari Temple which soon gripped the State on Tuesday (March 21) after a sacrificial goat at the Temple could not be beheaded even after multiple strikes.
Even as the priest is a seasoned and experienced one, it was claimed the goat could be beheaded on the 16th strike. Soon the incident hit the social media and people started reacting sharply.
While the fear of something ‘inauspicious’ is obvious, people are also talking about, once again, banning the animal sacrifice in the temples.
Today, devotees present in the temple were shocked and the entire temple ground was rattled as the sacrificial goat was wailing and squirming after repeated unsuccessful strikes by the priest.
Today’s unusual incident was preceded by a rampaging sacrificial buffalo which managed to flee from the sacrificial area on March 14 last and created havoc in which one person was injured, several shops and one house were damaged.
Occurrence of two unusual incidents at the Matabari temple in quick succession prompted many devotees to call it an indication of impending ill omen.
‘Mata Tripura Sundari Devi is unhappy. The rampaging buffalo and today’s incidence are reflecting HER unhappiness – something bad is likely to happen”, commented one devotee.
Apart from fearing about something inauspicious to happen, a section is – once again – raising demand for banning the ‘animal sacrifice’ at Matabari and other temples. However, banning ‘sacrifice of animals in Tripura’ is not easy owing to complicated legal issues.
District Magistrate of undivided South Tripura, Manish Kumar also tried to ban the animal sacrifice – but he could not succeed owing to the legal bindings.
During Tripura’s merger with the Union of India, an agreement was signed in 1949.
According to the merger instruments, the State Government is bound to continue animal sacrifices in the temples which were built by the kings before the merger. In fact, District Magistrates are ‘Seviyat’ of many temples including the Tripura Sundari Temple.
Answers to the question as to why it took ’16’ strikes by the experienced priest who is regularly doing this job, even yesterday also he did it without a flaw, remains unknown as the concern priest was not available for comments while others were tight lipped.
