Communal harmony goes hand-in-hand with the rituals at the Shanti Sabha Durga Puja at Kumarpara in Guwahati, where Seema Begum, like in earlier years, lit a lamp to seek the blessings of the goddess.

On Mahashtami, 102 women devotees lit more than 11,000 earthen lamps during Sandhipuja (performed at confluence of Ashtami and Navami tithis) on Sunday afternoon. Last year, the number was around 65, according to the Sabha officials.

“Muslims donate money and food items for the bhog on Ashtami and help organise the Puja right from the day the idol is installed. Seema Begum was one of the first to light a lamp. Altaf Mirza, the newly elected president of Jatiya Suraksha Manch, which organises all national occasions and festivals in Kumarpara, has also helped us,” Sabha secretary Manabendra Kumar Barma told The Telegraph.

The Shanti Sabha temple has been the centre of religious, cultural and social activities and people from different communities living in the area participate in these wholeheartedly.

The temple committee also contributes to different causes. It donated a cheque of Rs 50,000 to the chief minister’s relief fund and Rs 25,000 for kidney replacement surgery of Everester Tarun Saikia this year.

Animal sacrifice also marked Ashtami at several Pujas in the city and elsewhere.

In Udalguri district, animal sacrifice is part of the tradition at the 476-year-old Purani Tangla Habigaon Sarvajanik Durga-Shiva Mandir located on the outskirts of Tangla town.

Women devotees light earthen lamps during Sandhipuja at Shanti Sabha at Kumarpara in Guwahati on Sunday. Ali Fauz Hassan

Hundreds of devotees and visitors throng the temple every year to witness the animal sacrifice. Ten buffaloes, over 600 goats and many pigeons and ducks were brought as sacrificial offering by devotees from various parts of Assam on Sunday.

“People from all walks of life, irrespective of caste or community, visit the mandir every year. Devotees come from places like Nagaon, Tezpur and Guwahati,” said committee president Santi Ram Rabha.

Tripura Puja

Theme-based marquees have dominated the community Durga Pujas of the Tripura capital while the rural areas of the state prefer the traditional ones, adds PTI.

The big-budget puja committees have themed their marquees on Uttarakhand’s Badrinath Temple and Rajasthan’s Sheesh Mahal among others.

Organisers said the theme-based pujas act as crowdpullers as opposed to the traditional ones. Netaji Play Forum, a big-budget puja committee in the town, has spent over Rs 40 lakh to build the palace depicted in Bollywood film Padmaavat. “We based our marquee on the palace depicted in the blockbuster film Padmaavat as we think it will act as a crowd puller. A lot of people have thronged our marquee in the first few days and we expect more people in the coming few days,” secretary of Netaji Play Forum, Gautam Paul said.

Another Durga Puja committee, Deshbandhu Chittaranjan, has spent Rs 35 lakh to build the replica of Sheesh Mahal in Jaipur.

“Many people had requested us to build our marquee themed on Sheesh Mahal as they could not visit Rajasthan but wanted to have a taste of the architecture in Agartala itself,” the president of the club, Shibu Saha, said.

Shiv Nagar Modern Club has built its marquee based on the Badrinath temple.

The marquee depicts the temple situated atop a snow-capped peak on the banks of a lake.

Dipak Saha, one of the puja organisers of the club, said, “We are always on the look for newer themes.”

All the big-budget community pujas have hired artisans from Bengal for making idol and lighting.