Thousands of people from different parts of East Godavari district and adjourning West Godavari witnessed chariot festival (Rathotsavam) of Lord Lakshmi Narasimha Swami at this popular temple on Friday.
Earlier on Thursday night, celestial wedding of Lord with goddess Lakshmi was attended by huge crowd from different parts of the State including Deputy Chief Minister N. Chinna Rajappa and other VIPs.
On Friday, the chariot festival started at 2.40 p.m. amid elaborate security arrangements which saw deployment of uniformed personnel drawn from Kakinada, Rajahmundry and Amalapauram.
The chariot was decorated with bananas and other offerings made by devotees from several villages. It started from Rajavari Street and stopped at Aswaroodambika temple. Antarvedi temple chief priest Vadapalli Butchi Babu presented sari, bangles, turmeric powder to the goddess Aswaroodambika (known as sister of Lord Narasimha).
The chariot returned amid chants of “Govinda, Govinda” and reached 16-pillar mandapam late in the evening.
The ‘Kalyanotsavam’ was held on Thursday night and it was preceded by ‘Mudrikalankarana’, the main ritual before the ‘kalyanam’ was organised in a traditional manner. Bellamkonda and Vundavalli families sponsored the ritual.
Assistant Commissioner of the Endowments Department Bhramaramba and chairman of the temple Raja Kalidindi Simha Gajapati Bahadur and chief priest Vadapalli Butchi Babu led the procession of processional deities on different ‘vahanas’ before the Kalyanam, designed by Adabala Venkanna of Sringavarappadu in the evening. Priests from Peruru have participated in special puja to Koormanatha Swami, whose idol was caught in the nets of fishermen in Raktatulya river during the 14th century. Razole MLA Gollapalli Suryarao brought “madhuparkalu” (new clothes) to Lord Narasimha, Goddess Lakshmi and Polamuru family from West Godavari brought “talambralu”. Joint Collector Satyanaryana, festival chief and RDO Ganesh Kumar and P. Gannavaram MLA Pulavarthi Narayanamurthy also participated.
Fervour marks ‘Kalyanotsavam’ and ‘Mudrikalankarana’
