‘Makar Samkranti’ celebrated peacefully and with religious fervour across the state

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, January 14, 2026

The ‘Makar Samkranti’, a traditional Hindu festival and crucial occasion for performing pious religious rites was celebrated today across the state, specially in the rural and hilly areas with enthusiasm and religious fervour and thousands of people had their baths early in the morning in lakes, ponds and rivers. This was followed by offering of formal ‘Puja’ or worship of household deities or in temples and then in many places people took out ‘Nagar Samkirtan’ which moved around areas of habitation seeking offering in the form of specially prepared ‘Pithas’ (sweets made of boiled and lumped rice) and monetary donation. The visibility or volubility of such programmes were less in urban areas and more in the rural hinterland of the state. There were special ‘Pujas’ in all the temples with devotees thronging them in impressive numbers. There was also an ambience of celebratory silence in urban areas as people celebrated the festival.

Apart from this, there were large gathering of tribal and non-tribal people in Tirthamukh in Gomati district as also in Brahma Kunda in the Simna area in Mohanpur subdivision. Many tribal and non-tribal people gathered there to perform obsequious ceremonies of deceased parents and close relative on the banks of Dumbur Lake and the rivulet in Simna, considered sacred places in Tripura’s lore and legend. There are also fairs, specially in the Tirthamukh area and where people had their hair-cuts before having bath in the river and lake which is a confluence of Raima and Sarma rivers. “We look upon this as counterpart of Gaya and Triveni Sangam in Prayagraj and last rites of deceased parents and relatives are performed on the banks; actually from this day the Sun starts gaining in power and embarks on its northward march in terms of our calendar” said Vikash Jamayta, Hindu tribal scholar.

Besides, over and above the religious aspect, the day of January 14 is a crucial date in Hindu mythology and history also. It was on this very day that Hindu epic hero ‘Gangaputra Vishma’, critically injured in the war at Kurukshetra, had breathed his last. He had lain on a bed of arrows beside the battle field, awaiting this holy day before courting his self-willed death more than five thousand years ago. But a more recent historical event took place on the ‘Makar Samkranti’ day of January 14 1761 when the Maratha army led by Sadashib Rao Bhau had suffered a massive defeat against the invading Afghan army led by Ahmed Shah Abdali at Panipath in present day Haryana in culmination of a series of strategic blunders. This debacle suffered by the Marathas changed the course of Indian history, leaving a power vacuum and paving the way for rapid British ascendancy in India. Sadashib Rao Bhau, younger cousin of Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao, and teenaged Vishwas Rao, son of the Peshwa, had been martyred in the battle field along with 27 commanders and it took the Marathas ten years to recoup the reverses and emerge yet again as major power in north India. Today is the 265th anniversary of the crucial and decisive third battle of Panipath.

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