Puja with a royal touch

RANCHI: Once treated as incarnation of God by his subjects, the 64th descendant of the famous Seraikela royal family, Aditya Pratap Singhdeo, is observing the 807th puja at the palace temple at Seraikela in Jharkhand amidst traditional rituals.
    
Common people however were not allowed to watch the rituals at the palace temple since it is an exclusive puja for the royalty.
    
"The ritual is observed by family members only at the temple built by our ancestors and no outsider is allowed," Aditya Pratap Singhdeo, the eldest of the family, said.
    
While daughters-in-law were allowed but not the daughters because after marriage their 'gotra' changes, he said.
    
Even now people from nearby villages call on the erstwhile family, not to greet, but to seek blessings from the eldest member of the royal family on Vijayadashmi, the tenth day of the puja.
    
"As per tradition, our family has been observing the puja since 1205 from Podahat (now Chakradharpur to Sareikela, both in Jharkhand) and the goddess is called Paudi devi," he said.
     
"On Dashmi day, people used to throng at the palace to seek blessings from the eldest member of the royal family," he said.
    
As the eldest member in the present generation, Singhdeo will lead an all-male royal team to fetch water from a nearby river to cook rice by themselves to offer the goddess.
    
The festival is observed for sixteen days starting on Jita Ashtami, six days before Mahalaya and culminating on Dasami.
    
"About 5000 to 6000 people still come from nearby villages to the palace on vijayadashmi every year," he said.
    
The significant part of the ritual, is the choice of priest traditionally a 'Bhuyan', categorized as other backward class in Jharkhand and a tribe in Orissa, has been the priest at the family temple," Singhdeo said.