RAJSHAHI, Feb 16, 2021 (BSS) – People of the Hindu community today celebrated the Saraswati Puja with the spirit of pursuing education and knowledge, traditional gaiety and due religious fervour everywhere in the city as well as other districts in Rajshahi division.
Puja mandaps, mandirs and a large number of educational institutions have been colourfully decorated as hundreds of devotees seek blessings since morning from the `Devi Saraswati’, the Goddess of knowledge.
The devotees, especially the students attired in colourful dresses, offered special prayers and observed fasting as per the ritual of the festival to seek knowledge from the Goddess Saraswati.
In Rajshahi city, a large number of images of Goddess Saraswati, symbolizing a graceful woman riding on a swan, were erected at different puja mandaps, mandirs and educational institutions. Swaraswati Puja was celebrated at Rajshahi University, Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology, Rajshahi College, Rajshahi Medical College, Teachers Training College, Polytechnic Institute side by side with different educational institutions and many other places in the city.
The celebration also included offering of Devi Aradhana, Pushpanjoli, `archanas’, `anjolis’, `aratis’, distribution of `Prasad’, `Arati Competitions’, cultural functions and staging of drama.
To mark the celebration, Rajshahi University Central Puja Udjapan Parishad (RUPUP) arranged a bunny archana programme at central puja mandap premises today.
RU Vice-chancellor Prof Abdus Sobhan and Pro-VCs Prof Ananda Kumar Shaha and Prof Chowdhuury Jakaria addressed the meeting as chief and special guests respectively with RUPUP President Prof Biswanath Shikder in the chair.
RU Registrar Prof Abdus Salam, Proctor Prof Lutfor Rahman, Professor Emeritus Arun Kumar Basak and RUPUP General Secretary Prof Pronob Kumar Panday also spoke. Similar reports on celebration of Saraswati Puja were received here from Chapainawabganj, Natore, Naogaon, Bogura, Joypurhat, Pabna and Sirajganj districts in Rajshahi division.