Bhubaneswar: Normalcy returned to Shree Lingaraj Temple on Thursday as rituals resumed following a two-day disruption due to an ongoing dispute among servitors.
The Mangala Alati was performed as scheduled, allowing public darshan for devotees to proceed without interruption. All regular ceremonies, including daily offerings, were conducted smoothly throughout the day, according to temple sources.
The halt in services began Tuesday evening and persisted through Wednesday, coinciding with the auspicious occasion of Makar Sankranti. This left the presiding deity, Lord Lingaraj, without full worship, including the offering of bhog (sacred food) after the Sandhya Dhupa ritual and the traditional Makara Chaula on Wednesday, disappointing many devotees who visited the 11th-century shrine on the occasion.
This dispute persisted despite a directive from the Endowment Commission to the Khurda administration to hold a meeting of the servitor groups on Tuesday and ensure that Makar Sankranti rituals were not disrupted. Only ‘sahana mela’ (public darshan) was allowed on Wednesday.
The conflict stems from a disagreement between servitor groups, including the Badu Nijog and Brahman Nijog, over a specific ritual, ‘Ghruta Kamala Lagi’, in which a specially prepared ghee is applied on Lord Lingaraj’s face to symbolically protect the deity from the cold weather.
According to members of the Badu Nijog, they have traditionally handled the milk churning and jointly performed the ghee application alongside Brahman Nijog servitors. However, tensions escalated in 2025 when both groups claimed exclusive rights to conduct the ritual independently, leading to the standoff.
A similar controversy halted the practice the previous year, and a December 2025 order by the Khurda Collector, assigning specific roles to each group – Brahman Nijog servitors will perform ‘Dugdha Melana’ (milk offering), while Badu sevayats will do the ‘Ghruta Kamala Lagi’, was challenged in the Orissa High Court, which stayed the directive citing lack of authority to settle servitors’ disputes.
