The Krishna Pushkaram is not bringing any windfall for the thousands of priests, most of whom belong to Krishna, Guntur and West Godavari districts. The number of people participating in the festival is so far the largest since it began three days ago.
However, as only a small percentage of the pilgrims are doing Pinda Pradanam and other related rituals, priests had to look for clients. There is not much demand for priests even at the sheds allotted to them.
Duvvada Koteswara Rao, a priest hailing from Vizianagaram district, told The Hindu that he came across many people who bargained with the priests though the government had fixed the rates.
"Many of us have no other alternative except to do the rituals at less than the fixed rates as we cannot afford to lose whatever money that can be made here", he observed.
There is no problem with the people having the paying capacity. The government rates are very reasonable, Mr. Koteswara Rao asserted.
Another priest Ch. Rajasekhara Sarma said as per his information there were about 7000 priests at the ghats in and around Vijayawada city on the first day.
"Many of them might have dropped out as they could not earn much in the given situation," he said, expressing regret that they (priests) were not allowed to venture out of the sheds.
"If we are allowed to go out of the sheds but within the allotted ghats, it will be helpful. Otherwise we will lose many prospective clients", Mr. Sarma said.
The priests are not permitted to get into the river water (at the ghats) to make their clients do 'Sankalpam' and give 'tarpanalu' to their ancestors.
These traditions have to be followed during the bath by pilgrims in the river itself.
