‘Sravana masam’ festivities begin

The temple authorities, however, decided to perform Vara Lakshmi pooja on next Friday. The presiding deity will be decked up as Vara Lakshmi on that day.

People thronged temples, more particularly Kanakadurga temple atop Indrakeeladri, on the first day of ‘Sravana masam’ in Vijayawada on Friday.

The Kanakadurga temple was spruced up for the ‘Sravana masam’ and ‘pavitrotsavam’. Devotees started coming to the temple from the wee hours of Friday after taking holy dip in the River Krishna. They participated in the poojas performed to mark the beginning of the Sravana maasam.

The temple authorities, however, decided to perform Vara Lakshmi pooja on next Friday. The presiding deity will be decked up as Vara Lakshmi on that day. The temple authorities have cancelled the ‘Khadgamala’ a special pooja on next Friday in view of the Vara Lakshmi festival.

The temple, last year, organised Varalakshmi pooja atop Indrakeeladri. About 100 women participated in the pooja last year. The temple supplied blouse pieces and bangles as ‘prasadam’ to the devotees participated in the pooja.

Special pooja

The devotees took part in ‘Koti Kumkumarchana’, a special pooja being organised at the temple for the last couple of weeks. The pooja will come to an end on Saturday with poornahuti. The temple priests will perform the poornahuti at 10 a.m. on Indrakeeladri. A procession will be taken out from Komal Vilas centre in One Town to mark the grand finale of the Koti Kumkumarchana. The procession will pass through Nehru Bomma centre, Ganapathi Rao Road, Railway Station, Kaleswara Rao Market, Canal Road, and Ratham Centre and reach the temple.

The pavitrotsavam will begin with Udaka Santhi on July 31 evening.