Siva temples decked up for Maha Sivaratri

• Punyagiri, Someswaralayam and Sri Mukhalingam temples made elaborate arrangements for the convenience of devotees
• Cultural programmes like Ganga Vivaham, Siva Mahatmyam, Burrakatha and classical dances have been arranged to entertain the devotees

Vizianagaram: All the Siva temples in North Andhra districts being decorated and facilitated with all amenities for the convenience of devotees on the occasion of Maha Sivaratri on Monday. 

Devotees will throng Punyagiri, Someswaralayam, Sri Mukhalingam and others Monday and Tuesday and stay there to participate in Jagarana. The temple authorities and trust boards are making elaborate arrangement for the influx of devotees. 

They are setting up pandals, tents and providing temporary toilets and drinking water facility. They are taking the help of other social service organisations to conduct all these programmes in a smooth manner. 

Even the they are arranging cultural programmes like Ganga Vivaham, Siva Mahatmyam, Burrakatha and classical dances too to entertain the devotees.

Apart from all these temples, Ramateertham, a famous Srirama temple in North Andhra, is making huge arrangements for Maha Sivaratri. Though Ramateertham is a Vaishnava temple, they celebrate Maha Sivaratri in a grand manner and thousands of devotees visit Lord Srirama on Sivaratri. 

Locals say that in ancient days Srirama used to stay for some days during his Vanavasam and later in sixteenth century he appeared in the dream of Vizianagaram Maharaja and directed him to construct a temple for him at Ramateertham village. 

Even the Pandavas also have spent their Aranyavasam and visited the temple and prayed him to bless with success. Later Maharaja of Vizianagaram has developed the temple by donating lands and other assets to god Srirama. 

Later Shiva Linga also was installed and Siva was made as Kshetrapalaka of this Srirama temple. RTC is running special busses from Parvathipuram, Srikakulam, to Ramateertham for the convenience of public.

Even the Punyagiri, an another ancient temple nearby S Kota is also making arrangements for the occasion. Nagesh, executive officer of 500-year-old Sivalayam at Vizianagaram, told “We are taking all measures to provide basic amenities for the devotees and will take steps to complete Darshanams in a speedy way. We are expecting 30,000 devotees will visit the temple in these two days.”

Even the devotees will visit the Lord Siva on Monday night and spend there with their families till the morning. P Simhachalam of Kothavalasa told “My family is going to Punyagiri in the evening of Monday and we will spend whole night there and come back on Tuesday after Darshan. We have been visiting the temple for the past ten years regularly on Sivaratri.”