Jagatsinghpur: Keeping an age-old tradition alive, the Jagatsinghpur Collector assumed the title of a ‘king’ for a day at Sidhala village in the coastal district of Odisha.
Amid sounds of conchs and cymbals, Collector J Sonal was crowned as king on Monday by the villagers at the 400-year-old Baladevjew temple as part of the ‘Puspaveseka’ or flower coronation ceremony on the auspicious occasion of Pausa Purnima.
Ahead of the ceremony, the collector proceeded to the temple complex in a grand procession organised by villagers. Leading the procession in royal style, the new king reached the entrance of the temple with a giant traditional war drum to signal his coronation. This year’s coronation ceremony had all the pomp and grandeur of the past.
Marked by colourful rituals, the ceremony was witnessed by hundreds of villagers and devotees from nearby areas. Sounds of firecrackers, conches and bells rent the air as Pandit Surendranath Dassharma and others chanted slokas during the crowning.
The Collector observed the proceedings with keen interest throughout the two-hour ritual. The coronation not only added a new page to local history but also reflected a rare tradition where the district collector is crowned as king for a day.
As per temple priest Arun Kumar Panda, Bishnu Acharya was once the king in the area. After independence, the Orissa Estate Abolition Act of 1952 ended the zamindari system, and the Acharya family left the village.
Since then, villagers have continued the tradition by crowning the district collector every year during the festival. Several villagers reportedly presented their demands to the king for a day.
Expressing happiness over the one-day title, Sonal said it was a great privilege for him to be crowned as a king for a day to uphold this age-old tradition.
