The clouds played spoilsport on Thursday while citizens celebrated Sankranti day and blocked the sun’s rays from falling on the Shiva Linga at Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple in Gavipuram. It is an annual phenomenon every Sankranti.
The ancient cave temple, said to be renovated by Kempegowda I, is built in such a way that the sun’s rays fall on the south-facing idol on Sankranti day, when the sun begins to move northwards with respect to Earth.
Somasundara Dixit, chief priest of the temple, said though the sun’s rays entered the cave temple premises at the expected late afternoon time on Thursday, clouds covered the sun before the rays could fall on the idol. “In my experience of nearly 50 years at the temple, this is the first time that something like this has happened,” he said.
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C. S. Patil, Director, Indian Meteorological Department, Bengaluru, said that while the State usually enjoys clear dry weather on Sankranti, this year Bengaluru had cloudy weather, which seems to have disrupted the annual phenomenon at the temple.
“There was cloud formation observed in the city area because of the impact of easterly winds. Sri Lanka and Kanyakumari region receive rains during this time of the year. This impacting Bengaluru is rare, but not that extraordinary,” he said. In fact, IMD had on Wednesday forecast isolated spells of rain in south interior Karnataka and the coastal region due to a weather system near Maldives, 4.5 kms above mean sea level. IMD has also forecast “fog and mist very likely over Bengaluru city over the next four days”.
EOM
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