Andhra Pradesh - Tirupati   

Grandeur marks chariot festival

TIRUPATI: The penultimate day of the 9-day annual Brahmotsavam currently underway in the temple of Goddess Padmavathi at Tiruchanur was marked by a grand ‘Theru’ (chariot) festival.

The bejewelled deity of the Goddess mounted inside the beautifully decked up wooden chariot was pulled around the streets of the shrine by thousands of devotees amid a devotional fervour.

As the heavy chariot decorated with huge icons and festoons hurtled down the widened and spruced up streets, devotees who lined up offered the conventional harathi and chanted ‘Govinda Govinda’, as is a tradition in all the TTD temples during the temple processions.

Unlike in the previous Brahmotsavams, when the huge chariot used to struggle hard to traverse round the narrow streets and negotiate the crammed corners, it had a free and smooth run this year - thanks to the removal of all encroachments and broadening of the roads by the TTD through land acquisition proceedings as part of its master plan.

While pundits chanting verses from Vedas walked slowly behind the spruced up chariot, ‘Adhyapakas’ headed by the two TTD Jeeyars chanting Tamil ‘pasurams’ from the Alwar Divya Prabandhams led it from the front giving a spiritual touch to the entire ambience.

With the TTD’s audio-visual wing (broadcasting section) disconnecting the microphones after the ‘Divya Prabandha’ parayanam, the Vedic ‘Sathumurai’ rendered by a battery of Vedic scholars to mark the conclusion of the chariot festival remained inaudible, getting completely drowned, as it were, in the din.

Cultural and bhajan troupes which have converged here from different parts of the State also participated in the chariot procession amid traditional folk art forms such as Kolattams, Chekka Bhajana, Kuluku Bhajana etc adding colour to the fete.

Aswa Vahanam was conducted in the night when the Goddess adorned with an array of dazzling jewellery was taken round the temple in a colourful procession mounted on the vahanam.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

SV Veterinary varsity REAC meet on Nov. 25
Grandeur marks chariot festival
Convention of small, medium newspapers
Galla foods enters Yi national network

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu