RAJANNA-SIRCILLA, MARCH 08, 2024: Devotees thronged in large numbers to offers prayers at Sri Rajeshwara Swamy devasthanam in Vemulawada of Rajanna-Sircilla district on the auspicious occasion of Mahashivathri festival on Friday.
Pilgrims from far-flung places of the Telangana state and also neighbouring states have arrived in large numbers from Thursday onwards to the temple town and occupied each available place in Vemulawada town. Since early morning, the devotees formed serpentine queues after taking a holy dip in ‘dharmagundam’ (holy tank) for the darshan of the presiding deities of the temple.
The temple town reverberated with chants of ‘Om Namah Shivaya’, ‘Hara Hara Mahadeva’, ‘Shambo Shankara’ . The temple authorities and police machinery made unprecedented arrangements to avoid any inconvenience to the devotees for the smooth darshan. They made separate queue lines for VVIPs, VIPs and general devotees and ensured that the darshan was completed early without any inconvenience to the pilgrims waiting in queue lines. The philanthropists and temple authorities had served buttermilk, drinking water, fruits and prasadams to the devotees in queue lines.
As is a tradition, the TTD priests from Tirumala arrived in the early hours and presented silk vastrams to the presiding deities. Minister for Transport and BC Welfare Ponnam Prabhakar presented the silk vastrams on behalf of the state government. Vemulawada legislator and Government Whip Adi Srinivas was personally supervising arrangements to ensure smooth darshan for the devotees. Collector Anuraag Jayanthi, SP Akhil Mahajan and other officials were camping in the temple town.
Telangana High Court judge K Surender along with his family members, ZOP chairperson N Aruna, Karimnagar MLA Gangula Kamalakar and others offered prayers at the temple shrine. The Shiva deeksha devotees had also arrived in large numbers to offer prayers.
