Mahasivaratri Celebrated With Pomp In Telangana, AP

Both the Telugu-speaking states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh celebrated the festival of Mahasivaratri with pomp and gusto today.

Devotees of the Hindu deity Shiva flocked to the temples of the two states that have been beautifully decked up for the occasion, and performed special prayers in the god's honour. Through the day, the temples reverberated with the sounds of their chanting.

Famed temples in Andhra Pradesh, including the Srisailam temple, the Komuravelli Mallikarjuna Swamy temple and the Sri Bhramamba Malleswara Swamy temple, welcomed lakhs of devotees since the early hours of the day, with darshans in some shrines starting as early as 2:00 am.

(Nearly 10 lakh pilgrims, some even from neighbouring states, reportedly visited the Srisailam temple.)

In Telangana, Endowments Minister A Indrakaran Reddy presented traditional vastrams to the deity at the Sri Raja Rajeshwara Swamy temple, in Vemulawada, on behalf of the state government. He also offered special prayers after which he received prasadam from the priests. Former MP B Vinod Kumar also offered his respect to Lord Shiva on the occasion.

Devotees have been coming to the temple for the celebrations since yesterday. Some trouble marred the auspicious occasion, however, when a group of devotees alleged that the local police had harassed them while they were waiting in queues outside the temple premises. They said that the families of influential officials had been allowed to jump the lines to enter while they had to wait for hours for the darshans. The angry devotees even raised slogans against the police.

One among the thousands of worshippers who visited Warangal's Rudreswara Swamy Temple, known more popularly as the Thousand Pillar temple, was Telangana Panchayat Raj Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao. Other shrines in Warangal also drew huge crowds. Temple authorities had made all the necessary arrangements to enable devotees to observe their fasts, and for their overnight stays.

Amidst all the festivities, in a grim reminder of the persistence of the Covid-19 pandemic siutation, the temple officials in both the states had been careful about implementing the requisite safety norms - social distancing and mask-wearing - at the shrines to avoid the spread of the disease.