Thousands throng Srikalahasti temple on new moon day

Tirupati: Srikalahasti Devasthanam witnessed a heavy rush on Monday with thousands of devotees thronged the temple to offer prayers to Lord Srikalahasteeswara and Goddess Gnana Prasunambika. As Monday which is auspicious for Lord Shiva coincided with the new moon day, the temple received heavy inflow of devotees from morning to evening and nearly 35,000 devotees had visited the temple.

As the temple is also famous for Rahu Kethu pujas as it is also known as Rahu Kethu kshetram, a record number of 7,358 devotees have performed the pujas during the day. People had a belief that it will be good for them to get rid of all ‘Doshas’ in their horoscope if Rahu Kethu puja is performed on new moon day and during Rahu Kala time on every day.

As such 7,358 devotees have performed the pujas in the temple on Monday through which the Devasthanam got a revenue of Rs 60.72 lakh. During most of the days in recent times, the temple witnessing over 4,000 pujas daily and crossing 5,000 on weekends and Mondays.

As many as 4,344 devotees performed the pujas by purchasing Rs 500 tickets followed by Rs 750 tickets by 1,877 devotees, Rs 1,500 tickets by 615, Rs 2,500 tickets by 416 and Rs 5,000 tickets by 106 devotees.

While two persons on each Rahu Ketu puja ticket will be allowed for darshan, another 5,200 people are allowed on darsanam tickets. Of them, 3,310 devotees have purchased Seeghra darsan tickets whereas another 1,890 have bought special entrance tickets.

Devotees have also purchased prasadams in large numbers with a total of 31,500 packets have been sold which include Jilebi, small laddu, vada, pulihora and big laddu.

Temple Chairman Anjuru Taraka Srinivasulu, EO KV Sagar Babu and other officials continuously monitored the queue lines to make a hassle-free darshan for the devotees. They have provided water and butter milk continuously in the queue lines for the waiting pilgrims.