Hundreds of devotees on Monday had hassle-free darshan of the Sun God Sri Suryanarayana Swamy at Arasavalli in Srikakulam District on the auspicious occasion of Ratha Sapthami, which is also known as Surya Jayanti.
The devotees thronged temple on Sunday midnight itself as Ksheerabhisekham was performed between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.
Sarada Peetham head Swami Swarupanandendra performed the Ksheerabhisekham and explained about the importance of Sun God temple and the presiding deity. Srikakulam District Collector P.Lakshmi Narasimham, Srikakulam S.P. AS Khan and other top officials were present on the temple premises to oversee the arrangements.
The Endowments Department could sell 1,662 tickets each priced at Rs.216 for the devotees. The rush for Rs.100 ticket queue was also not much compared to alst year due to bitter experiences previously.
Huge drop in temperatures and cold wave also prevented early hour darshan at the temple. However, the number of devotees gradually increased from 9 a.m. with the arrival of people from other parts of North Andhra region and Odisha. The APSRTC is operating over 50 buses from Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Rajam, Palakonda, Tekkali and other places.
Heavy security arrangements were made with police force deployed from Indira Vignan Bhavan to avoid traffic jams and stampede in and around the temple.
