There was heavy surge of pilgrims at the ancient Sri Raja Rajeshwara Swamy devasthanam in Vemulawada of Rajanna-Sircilla district on Friday on the occasion of Mahashivarathri festival.
The devotees coming from far flung places formed serpentine queues for darshan of presiding deities after taking a holy dip in ‘dharmagundam’ since early hours. As the devasthanam authorities have stopped all the puja rituals at the shrine and allowed only ‘laghu’ darshan following heavy pilgrims rush, there was heavy rush for the traditional “kode mokku” offering.
The queue lines stretch to more than 2.5 kilometers for the darshan and also “kode mokku” from morning to evening. The pilgrims were taking more than two hours for the darshan of the presiding deities. The district administration and devasthanam authorities have made elaborate arrangements for the smooth flow of pilgrims at the shrine.
The priests from Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam (TTD) lead by JEO Srinivas Rao arrived from Tirumala and presented silk vastrams to the presiding deities as is a ritual since ages. Similarly, Minister for Finance and Civil Supplies Etala Rajender presented silk vastram on behalf of state government alongwith, Karimnagar MP B Vinod Kumar, Vemulawada legislator Ch Ramesh Babu, State cultural council chairman Rasamayi Balakishan, Karimnagar legislator G. Kamalakar, ZP chairperson Tula Uma and others. Collector Krishna Bhaskar and SP Vishwajit were camping in Vemulawada temple town and overseeing the arrangements round the clock and ensuring that no hardship was caused to the pilgrim.
The special attraction of this Mahasivarathri festival at the shrine was the colourful cultural programmes organized by the state cultural department.
Similarly, the Shiva temple shrines at Koti Lingala in Velgatoor mandal and Dubba Rajeshwara Swamy devasthanam in Pembatla village of Sarangapur mandal in Jagtial district, Sri Kaleshwara Muktheshwara Swamy devasthanam in Kaleshwaram of Mahadevpur mandal in Jayashankar-Bhupalapalli district were packed to the brim with the arrival of scores of pilgrims to offer prayers.
