Srikalahasti temple witnesses beehive of activity

Tirupati: The famous Srikalahasti devasthanam known as 'Dakshina Kasi' has been gaining popularity as it attracts thousands of devotees every day. During weekends, the footfall is touching the 30,000 mark and the temple has been earning huge revenues. As the temple is also famous for Rahu Ketu pujas, the revenue through these has been ever increasing.

Nearly 30,000 devotees have worshipped the presiding deities Lord Srikalahasteeswara and goddess Gnana Prasunambika on Sunday. Out of them around 5,500 people have purchased special darshan tickets of Rs200 and Rs50. Thereby the devasthanam earned about Rs.7 lakhs. Further, 90 devotees performed Abhishekam by purchasing the tickets while another 26 attended Mahanayasa Rudra Abhishekam. Gopooja was performed by 110 devotees while several others bought other puja tickets contributing to the treasury of the temple. The famed Rahu Ketu pujas were performed by 5,227 persons during the day while most of them attended during the Rahukalam time between 4.30 – 6 pm which many consider auspicious for this puja. Through this puja itself the temple has earned more than 42 lakhs on a single day. To go in detail 68 people have bought Rs5,000 Rahu Ketu puja tickets.

Similarly, 278 devotees performed the puja by purchasing Rs2,500 tickets while another 414 bought Rs1,500 tickets. Another 3,216 devotees purchased the puja with Rs500 tickets followed by 1,251 devotees with Rs750 tickets.

In addition to these, the devasthanam earns money with the sale of prasadams. On Sunday, 14,091 small laddus, and 399 big laddus were sold. Similarly, 688 Jilebis, 6,402 Pulihora packets and 2,546 Vadas were also sold.

Throughout the day, the temple witnessed a steady stream of devotees and the queue lines were jam packed. Temple management had to put extra efforts to control them and provide early darshan as far as possible. On Saturday also, more than 25,000 devotees visited the temple while 4,889 of them performed Rahu Ketu pujas.

Even during weekdays around 2,000 people have been performing Rahu Ketu pujas and the temple witnesses more than 15,000 devotees. The devasthanam also received Rs1.22 crores from hundi for 28 days when they were opened on June 29.