Agartala, Mar 21, 2023, TRIPURA TIMES Desk

Udaipur, Mar 22: A shadow of uncertainty and worry shrouded the temple town Udaipur – and then also entire state -as some ‘terrible and unprecedented things’ keep on happening for the last few days at Tripura Sundari temple – which, all feel, were suggestive of something ominous coming.

On Tuesday, all the devotees were shocked and terrified as the priest who by virtue of his position is an expert in ‘boli’ (beheading of the sacrificial animal) could not perform the Boli even with 15 strikes on a goat. That was unnatural, never heard of and seriously ‘ominous’, felt the devotees who witnessed the incident. Generally, sacrifice of animal is done in a single strike. 

They have a reason to be terrified – only on March 14 a buffalo brought to be sacrificed at the altar tore off the ropes and ran amok in which one person was injured, and several shops and one house were damaged.  

This was also an unprecedented happening that rattled the people. Now the priest failed to sacrifice the goat in mandatory one strike. Devotees present in the temple on Tuesday were in extreme awe and the entire temple ground was startled as the sacrificial goat was wailing and squirming after repeated unsuccessful strikes by the priest.

Many claimed that it is a first-of-its-kind incident in Matabari when it required so many strikes –in total 16-to behead a sacrificial goat. 

The occurrence of two unusual incidents at the Matabari temple in quick succession prompted many devotees to call it as an omen and an indication of something impending ‘inauspicious’ happenings.  

‘Mata Tripura Sundari is unhappy. The rampaging buffalo and today’s incidences are reflecting HER unhappiness – something bad is likely to happen”, commented one devotee.

While ‘inauspicious’ is dominating the discussions, a section is – once again - raising demand for banning the ‘sacrifice of animals’ at Matabari and other temples. Soon the incident hit social media and people started reacting sharply.  However, banning ‘sacrifice in Tripura ’ is impossible owing to complicated legal issues.

District magistrate of undivided South Tripura, Manish Kumar also tried to ban animal sacrifice – but he could not owing to the legal bindings. During Tripura’s merger with 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 ‘Seviyats’ of many temples including the Tripura Sundari Temple.