The Gujarat state home minister has announced a ban on Hindu and Muslim festivals in the state, including Ganesh Mahotsav, in August to curb the spread of Covid-19. Ambaji’s padayatra will not be held for the first time in Gujarat due to the ruling. A formal notification is soon awaited on the decision.
Home Minister Pradip Singh Jadeja, who was present at the 71st Forest Festival at Kandari near Vadodara, said a notification would be issued by the state government soon.
Jadeja further said that the only way to prevent the spread of Corona infection is social distance. Health organizations have made several requests to the government not to celebrate any of the major and minor festivals in August, including Ganeshotsav and Tajia. Approving the directive state government agreed that gatherings at festivals would increase the spread of the pandemic. So it has been decided to ban the celebration of Hindu-Muslim festivals in the month of August, including Ganeshotsav.
The Bhabrapad fair is held at Ambaji which is in the Danta Taluka of Banaskantha district, near the Gujarat-Rajasthan border. The walk(Padyatra) from the bus station to the temple is less than one kilometer, under a roofed walkway.
Ambaji is the principal shrine of a goddess who has been worshiped since the pre-Vedic period. She is often referred to as Arasuri Amba, named after the location of the temple which is in the Arasur hills, near the source of the Saraswati river at the south-western end of the Aravali mountain range.
The inner sanctum of the temple has silver-plated doors. There is a gokh, or niche, in the wall on which is fixed a gold-plated marble inscription of the viso yantra, a Vedic text on sacred geometry, which is the main focus of worship.It is to be specially noted that there is no idol of the goddess perhaps because the temple is so ancient that it predates idol-worship, but the priests decorate the upper portion of the gokh in such a way that it looks like an idol of a goddess from a distance. The ecstatic festival of Navratri is celebrated all over Gujarat in reverence of Ambaji, by dancing garba around the Holy Mother. On these nine nights the Nayak and Bhojok communities also perform the bhavai.
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