GUWAHATI, June 26 � The main door of the Kamakhya temple was opened at 7 am today for thousands of devotees, at the end of the four-day Ambubachi Mela, which had started on June 22. Nibriti, the final ritual of the festival, was held at the sanctum sanctorum of the temple last evening.
As today was the first day of the darshan after reopening, the temple premises yet again witnessed a huge rush of people. As most of the pilgrims from outside Guwahati started returning to their destinations from today, most of them stood in queues for hours to have a glimpse of the Mother Goddess before departing.
The number of visitors in this year�s Ambubachi Mela broke previous records. According to an estimate, more than six lakh people participated in the festival. More than 80,000 people visited the temple today according to the temple management committee. Of these, 50,000 went for darshan, whereas 20,000 had a glimpse of the main temple from a distance or performed parikrama. Most of the sanyasis, who came to the temple for meditation etc., however, skipped the darshan.
To deal with the rush of people and help them complete the darshan, the management committee has decided not to close the temple during the afternoon from June 26 to June 29. This step would provide additional two hours to clear the rush of devotees queuing up for the darshan.
�On behalf of the Kamakhya Debuttar Board, I offer Vedic greetings to the devotees and people who helped in conducting the festival smoothly. With the number of devotees growing every year and the grandeur of the festival multiplying, it has become a big challenge for us to take care of the entire arrangements and conduct the four-day festival. We are happy that the festival was conducted very smoothly,� said Naba Kanta Sarma, secretary of the Board.
Sarma also mentioned that setting up the eatery for the devotees at a distance from the temple helped a lot in maintaining cleanliness. �This year the temple surrounding is much cleaner in comparison to the previous years. Whatever sanitation work is left to be done would be completed in the next 24 hours,� he added.
