Brahmapur: President Droupadi Murmu offered prayers at the revered Maa Kandhuni Devi Temple at Taptapani in Ganjam district on Tuesday after a 170-km-long special train journey from Bhubaneswar to Brahmapur as part of her ongoing 3-day visit to Odisha.
It is one of South Odisha’s most sacred tribal shrines.
After arriving from Brahmapur in a carcade, the President visited Panthanivas at Taptapani, where she took a bath in the natural hot sulphur spring before having lunch. She then proceeded to the nearby Maa Kandhuni Devi Temple and Nilkantheshwar Shiva Temple, which had been tastefully decorated with flowers for her visit.
The Maa Kandhuni Devi Temple committee accorded her a warm welcome and escorted her into the sanctum sanctorum at 3-15 pm, where she performed special puja before the presiding deity and spent around 30 minutes. During the ritual, entry of devotees into the temple was temporarily restricted for security reasons.
Despite intermittent drizzle, hundreds of local residents gathered outside the shrine since 9 am to catch a glimpse of the President, who distributed chocolates among the children present there. The visit is expected to boost the profile of Taptapani, a tourist destination famous for its natural hot sulphur springs and the ongoing Rs 12-crore infrastructure redevelopment project.
A historic bungalow built in 1860 by Pudamari King Adikanda Dev for visiting British officials continues to stand as a reminder of Taptapani’s colonial past. The bungalow, equipped with a bathing tub fed by the natural hot sulphur spring, has since been developed into a Panthanivas, offering the same unique hot-water bathing facility to tourists.
According to noted Ganjam historian Dr Anantaram Kar Kaundinya, Raja Nanda Kishore Dev later constructed a kutcha road to Taptapani by cutting through the surrounding hills, while the first motor vehicle reached the scenic destination in 1945, marking a significant milestone in its accessibility.
Following the temple visit, the President left for the Army Air Defence College at Golabandha for an overnight stay. Elaborate security arrangements, including deployment of around 30 police platoons, no-drone restrictions and traffic regulations, were enforced throughout the visit.