The 11-day-long Vyasa Sarovar Mela and the golden jubilee celebration of the Vyasanagar Municipality concluded at the Vyasa Sarovar Ground on Tuesday with more than 7 lakh devotees, who also included those from Keonjhar and Dhenkanal districts, attending the fair and praying lord Vyasadev and Raghabaji Gosain.
This place has a historical importance because it is said that the Mahabharata between the Kouravs and Pandavs was fought here. Here, Duryodhan was hiding himself and later severely beaten by Bhimsen for which he lost a leg. The place also has Gupta Ganga, from where people take sacred water for purification of their body.
On the concluding day of the Mela, 10 eminent persons of Vyasa Nagar were awarded with Vyasa Ratna and Vyasa Gourav Samman. Architect Raichand Dhal got the highest honour of Vyasa Ratna. The Vyasanagar Samman went to Dr Pramod Satapathy, Harihar Rout, Rutuprabha Panigrahi, Bibekananda Mohanty, Sanjukta Mohapatra, Baburam Jena, Asish Ray, Dr Chakradhar Biswal, Niranjan Parida and Saraswati Patra.
Rajya Sabha member Rama Chandra Khuntia was the chief guest of the evening while former Minister Sarat Rout was the guest of honour and former chairman of local municipality Hrusikesh Rout the chief speaker. A souvenir tilted Subarna Sandesh was unveiled at the meeting, which presided over by municipality chairperson Bandita Parida.
