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Chhat, a popular festival of Bihar, concluded peacefully with millions of devotees offering arghyas [prayers] to the sun on Monday morning to mark the end of the two-day festival.
The Bihar government had banned the use of private boats during the festival to avoid a repeat of the Nariyal ghat tragedy near Patna in 1995 in which 66 people drowned in a mishap.
In Patna, over 2,00,000 people offered prayers on the ghats of the Ganga river. Similar, but smaller congregations were reported in Gaya, Muzaffarpur and Bhagalpur on the banks of Falgu and Gandak rivers.
The festival has emerged as a symbol of Bihari identity.
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