Sri Durga Malleswara Swamyvarla Devasthanam in association with the Hindu Dharma Parirakshana Trust organised ‘Akshara Deevena' , a mass aksharabhyasam programme, in the city on Sunday.
Coinciding with the new academic year, the event was organised at Bhavani deeksha mandapam of Kanaka Durga temple atop Indrakeeladri. Visakha Sarada Peetham seer Swaroopanandendra Swamy blessed the children.
The seer initiated a few children into world of letters at around 7.47 a.m. Later, the lisping children were given ‘vidya kankanalu’ by the priests during the annual religious event. Slates, books, slate pencils and school bags formed gifts to the children. Helped by their parents, they were made to write alphabets on new slates.
A good number of devotees, along with their children, thronged the temple for the religious ceremony to propitiate goddess Saraswati.
The temple priests said that the ‘aksharabhyasam,’ a process to initiate the child into world of learning, was being organised to uphold the age old traditions. In olden days, ‘aksharabhyasam’ used to be performed before sending the child to gurukulam. It is time tested practice to make the child write ‘Om Namah Sivaya Siddham Namah’ in front of goddess Sarawati, they said. Temple Executive Officer Trinadh, Vedic scholars Shanmukha Sastry and others were present.
