Religious zeal marked the celebrations of the annual Ratha Saptami festival at the famous hill temple of Lord Venkateswara on Monday. The processional deity of Lord Malayappa was taken around the thoroughfares of the temple town in a grand procession on seven different vahanams.
The town which was entirely absorbed in spiritual fervour sprang to life in the wee hours of the day with the procession of ‘Surya Prabha Vahanam’. Tens of thousands of devotees who had congregated at the north-west corner of the hill town chanting ‘Govinda namam’ went into raptures as the first rays of the Sun touched the feet of the processional deity mounted atop the golden ‘Surya Prabha Vahanam’. Devotees who had assembled at the junction hours in advance offered Harathi to the deity from at their stationed points.
As the day progressed, the processions of other vahanams like Chinna Sesha, Garuda, Hanumanta, Kalpavriksha, Sarvabhoopala were organised in regular intervals much to the delight of the multitude of devotees who remained stay-put at their respective locations all through the day. The authorities also observed Chakrasnanam in the afternoon wherein the holy disc was given a celestial dip in the Swamy Pushkarini. The spiritual hoopla gradually retreated with the conduct of Chandraprabha Vahanam in the night.
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Meanwhile, the procession of Lord Govindaraja in Tirupati and Goddess Padmavathi in Tiruchanur on seven celestial carriers from dawn to evening kept the devotees in spiritual awe on Monday.
The deity of Sri Suryanarayana at Tiruchanur was taken on a horse ride this morning. The event was observed at the temple of Kalyana Venkateswara at Srinivasa Mangapuram.