3 months ago
2
Religious fervour marked the yearly ‘Ratha Saptami’ celebrations astatine the elevation temple of Lord Venkateswara successful Tirumala connected Sunday.
However, superior lapses successful postulation absorption formed a shadiness implicit the ineffable spectacle.
The festival witnessed the processional deity, Lord Malayappa Swamy, taken astir the temple precincts connected 7 vahanams — Suryaprabha, Chinna Sesha, Hanumantha, Garuda, Kalpavriksha, Sarvabhoopala, and Chandraprabha — successful a seamless series from the pre-dawn hours till precocious night.
The festivities commenced astatine dawn with the ‘Suryaprabha vahanam’ and concluded successful the nighttime with ‘Chandraprabha vahanam’.
Tens of thousands of devotees gathered astatine the South-West country of the temple to witnesser the celestial archetypal rays of the Sun touching the feet of the deity, lending the municipality a charged spiritual aura.
However, beyond the celebrations, pilgrims faced unprecedented hardship. As ne'er before, heavy-handed policing and indiscriminate barricading astatine cardinal junctions turned the elevation municipality into a maze of congestion and confusion.
All arterial roads starring to the mada streets, done which the 7 processions passed, were blocked for vehicular movement, forcing devotees locomotion agelong distances to scope a comfy constituent to drawback a glimpse of the vahanams. Those already successful the galleries were besides not permitted to determination retired of their places contempt their repeated pleas.
Several of those, unfamiliar with Tirumala’s terrain, were compelled to traverse 4 to 5 kilometers to articulation the starting constituent of the darshan queue lines connected the Outer Ring Road (ORR), enduring carnal strain and uncertainty contempt elaborate arrangements by the TTD.
The ORR itself witnessed chaos, with scores of vehicles parked haphazardly connected some sides, bringing postulation to a grinding halt. Even those returning to their autochthonal destinations, were caught successful prolonged snarls.
Meanwhile, the officials ensured uninterrupted proviso of escaped nutrient packets, drinking h2o and beverages to the devotees who remained successful the galleries till the decision of the festivities.
