Varanasi: Dev-Deepavali Mahotsava marking the slaying of demon Tripurasur by Lord Shiva would be held at the Dasaswamedh ghat here in this ancient temple city on Kartik Purnima in the Hindu calender falling on November 13.

Aarti would be performed on a one kilometre stretch with 25,000 earthern lamops to be lit on the steps of the ghat.

"The aarti will be performed by 42 disciples, 21 of them women to pay obeisance to the river goddess as well as other deities," the organizers Ganga Nidhi President Satinder Mishra told PTI.

All the disciples have been interviewed and their understanding of the scriptures and prowess in performing rituals considered, he said.

The disciples will be dressed in Benarasi silk robes and saffron patta-bastra to enact synchronised mudras beside the river during the aarti, Mishra said.

Pooled from Hindu gurukul institutions in Varanasi these disciples have been imparted the Nidhi s motto to preserve the purity, sanctity, and divinity of Ganga, its ghats and Kanshi, the oldest religious place in the world besides Jerusalem.

Jhamar-aarti, Kapur aarti, Rumal aarti, Mayurpankha aarti, Chamar aarti would be performed on the bank of the river, he said.

While an estimated Rs one lakh is spent for holding the aarti every month, it will shoot up to Rs 15 lakh for the Dev-Deepavali ceremony, he said.
Source : PTI