The festival of Navratri concludes with great devotion and bliss. On the last night of the 9 days festival, thousands of devotees gathered to observe the beautiful ritual of Maha Aarti conducted at Sutharwada, which is famous for its grand pandal and splendid navratri celebration that attracts thousands of people every day.

Hundreds of people participated in Maha Aarti of Goddess Amba whose idol was splendidly decorated not only with flowers and ornaments but also with currency notes worth Rs. 7 lakhs tied in form of garlands and other decoration known as Mata ka Shringar.

The devotees prayed for prosperity and peace holding lamps in hands during maha aarti. The aarti was followed by Phoolon ki Holi, a unique celebration where devotees’ shower flowers over a girl dressed as Goddess Amba and as she walked through the road many followed her transforming the event into a small procession.

The dandiya dance competition completed the fun and blissful element of tonight’s magnificent event organized by Sutharwada Mitra Mandal, a group of locals who conducted the 9 days event at Sutharwada.

Navratri of Sutharwada is considered as the most beautiful navratri celebration of Udaipur, the road in the locality and 70 feet high pandal is decorated with different themes one theme for consecutive 3 days and then it was changed.

Tulsiram Mali, president of the organization and the brain behind initiating the event said, “The first three days we decorated the area with black mirror worked clothes, the next 3 days we made a pink colored theme and on the last three days we tried to give it a look of bejeweled palace.”

The road was decorated with golden carved pillars made of fiber with colorful lamps to make it more attractive. “The inspiration of this particular design and decoration came from a set of a TV reality show held in Udaipur’s Fatehgarh Palace Hotel a few years back,” says Tulisram who is a florist and an expert in decoration.

He said, “It took more than 6 months to prepare these pillars and other objects; however it took just a few hours to assemble them.”

“We have nearly 200 volunteers from our area who gave assistance in all 9 days of Navratri; everyone is assigned a particular job like coordination, lighting, decoration, security and management of other activities,” Tulsiram says while talking to UT.

Navratri at Sutharwada is the best example of describing faith, unity and a perfect team work of community. It also shows the compact engineering on how a merely 12 ft wide road has been used to erect a 70 feet tall pandal without disturbing the traffic.

All over it was a grand celebration on the last night of Navratri at Sutharwada, here are some beautiful clicks by Shekhar Sharma and Sayeed Ahmed.