The Godavari pushkarams may have taken off in Andhra Pradesh with Madhura Krishnamurthy Sastry Siddhanti and his followers taking the holy dip in the river at Rajahmundry on Sunday but his contemporary astrologers in Telangana have different reasons for the launch of the rituals only on July 14.
They point out that the planet, Jupiter, will enter the Leo sign and for 12 days since then, that is, July 14, pushkarams will be observed.
Mr. Sastry said the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had appointed a calendar reforms committee way back in 1954-55 and the committee released some guidelines for preparing calendars. “Though we had cited some theories of Varaha Mihira, the committee never considered them, but asked all the astrologers to work in unison. As per our calendar, the Godavari Pushkaralu commenced on Sunday and will be ended on July 9,” he said.
