Deepika Pasham
Hyderabad
All Shiva temples in the city are decked up to welcome devotees who follow the rituals of fasting the whole day on Saturday to celebrate Maha Shivaratri.
The temples are lit up with different kinds of lights, floral mandaps and barricades for devotees. Most Hyderabadis visit Keesaragutta. This temple takes an hour of travel and most devotees wish to book rooms and arrive there before a day. They participate in pooja at the temple, fast and later after breaking the fast they engage in singing night-long bhajans in temples.
So the temple authorities have put up barricades to ensure hassle-free darshan for all devotees. The temple officers mentioned that they expect three lakh devotees this year. All arrangements have been made for them, including water packets, lighting and parking.
This temple was recognised by UNESCO as a heritage temple. The temple will reverberate with the chants of Vedic mantras while priests perform Rudrabhishekam and Kalyana Mahotsavam.
Some ancient Shiva temples are the Chaya Someswara temple, Ramappa temple, Thousand Pillar temple, Sri Raja Rajeshwara temple and the Kaleshwaram temple.
According to priests, among all the 12 Shivratris that occur in a calendar year, Mahashivratri, the one that occurs in February-March, has the maximum spiritual significance. On this night, the northern hemisphere of the planet is positioned in such a way that there is a natural upsurge of energy in a human being.
In Malkajgiri a Shiva temple is visited by devotees in huge numbers and the priests there have finished preparations to receive them. Arrangements have been made for special pooja, abhishekam and cultural programmes for people spending nights at the temple.
As Industries Minister KT Rama Rao instructed to make special arrangements at the Sri Rajarajeswara Swamy Temple Vemulawada, it is decorated for the Maha Shivratri Jatara. The three-day annual fair began on Friday and devotees have started arriving at the temple to participate in the Jatara.
Elaborate arrangements have been made for the Jatara by spending Rs 3.30 crore as about three to four lakh devotees from different parts of Telangana, as well as neighbouring states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, are expected to visit the temple on Mahashivaratri day.
Collector Anurag Jayanti and SP Akhil Mahajan, who reviewed the arrangements after meeting officials, divided the temple town into different zones and allotted zones to the officials of different departments.
The TSRTC has decided to operate 850 buses on different routes to ferry pilgrims from different parts of the state. 14 mini-buses are also operating from Thuppapur (Vemulawada Bus Stand) to the main temple to transport pilgrims free of cost.
Apart from decorating all the affiliated temples as well as the temple town with attractive lights, pandals have been provided for devotees. Arrangements for showers have also been made. Special queue arrangements have also been made for devotees to have darshan of the deity.
Medical camps have been arranged at various places including temple tanks, associated temples, bus stands and other areas. A VIP parking lot in the temple tank area and general parking lots in different areas of the city have also been provided.
Around 1,200 policemen have been deployed to conduct the Jatara in a peaceful manner and to maintain law and order. CCTV cameras have also been installed in the temple town.
