Kolhapur: Panchganga Ghat Glows with 51,000 Lights to Mark the End of Diwali Festival

The banks of the Panchganga River glowed beautifully in the morning, featuring the gently flowing river, splendid rangolis, and the illumination of 51,000 lamps at the Samadhi temple. The sky blazed in seven colors with fireworks as the Deepawali festival culminated in traditional lamp lighting at temples and reservoirs on the Tripurari full moon. Organized by the ‘Shivmudra Pratishthan’ at the Panchganga river ghat, the Deepotsav commenced with Deepa pujan at 4 am, led by President’s Award winner Sagar Bagade. Citizens lit lamps along the river ghats in areas such as Brahmapuri, Mahadev Temple, Krimkeshwar Temple, Ravaneshwar, and Picnic Point.

The area was picturesque, with lamps illuminating the Samadhi temple in the riverbed. Participants included the White Army personnel, various local training institutions, and the Municipal Corporation. Significant contributions came from Sandeep Desai, Atul Vastad, Akshay Mithari, Raju Kayed, Nilesh Jadhav, Avadhoot Koli, Deepak Desai, Praveen Chougule, Avinash Salokhe, Vinod Hazare, Vaibhav Kavade, and Soham Kurhade.

Eye-catching rangolis adorned the river ghat, featuring replicas of the Keshavrao Bhosale Theatre and grand designs of Ambabai Devi and Sanskar Bharati. In light of the elections, awareness was promoted through striking rangolis, including one focused on voting awareness.

The heartfelt ‘Swardeepotsav’ of devotional songs lasted two and a half hours. Mahesh Hiremath and Shubhangi Joshi opened with ‘Sur Niragas Ho,’ followed by a series of songs including ‘Ambabaichi Bhupali,’ ‘Gondhal,’ and others, concluding with the Gondal Geeta of goddess Malharwari, alongside Pradeep Jirge, Swanand Jadhav, Mahesh Kadam, and Shridhar Jadhav, with a statement from Swapnil Panhalkar.