Religious ecstasy marked the annual Pushpa Yagam festival at the temple of Lord Venkateswara here on Monday.
About 14 varieties of aromatic flowers and a potpourri of six types of sacred leaves were used in the festival that lasted till evening. In addition to the traditional flowers such as chamanti, rose, ganneru, sampangi, nooru varahalu, jasmine, mollalu, lotus, kanakambaram, mogili rekulu, kaluva customary leaves like Tulasi, davanam, panneru, maruvam, kadiri paccha and bilwam were used.
The idols of Lord Malayappa and his two divine consorts were placed on a high golden altar as the priests carried out the floral festival at Sampangi Prakaram inside the temple.
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Floral ‘Ahuitis’ were ceremoniously offered to the deities amid chanting of sacred texts by a battery of Vedic pundits.
Each time the floral mound formed with the offering of flowers touched the divine chin of the deities, they were cleared by the priests till the festival reached its climax.
According to the TTD Additional EO A.V. Dharma Reddy, about eight tonnes of flowers are estimated to have gone in the conduct of the yagam. The flowers were procured by way of donations. While five tonnes of flowers were procured from Tamil Nadu, two were from Karnataka and the rest from the State (A.P.) and Telangana.
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Earlier in the morning ‘Snapana Thirumanjanam’ was conducted to the deities with milk, curd, honey, coconut water and sandalwood paste.
TTD Executive Officer Anil Kumar Singhal also honoured Deputy Director (Gardens) Srinivasulu with a shawl for successfully procuring flowers required for the festival.