Maha Sivaratri celebrated with religious fervour

Warangal: Maha Sivaratri festival was celebrated with religious fervour across the erstwhile Warangal district on Tuesday and the temples of Lord Siva witnessed heavy rush of devotees.

The festival rituals and special prayers have begun early in the morning on the day at historic Sri Rudreshwara Swamy Temple (Thousand Pillar Temple), Ramappa, Komuravelli Mallikarjuna Swamy, Inavolu Mallikarjuna Swamy, Palakurthy Laskshmi Narasimhaswamy, Kuravi Veerabhadra Swamy, Swayambhu Siddeshwaralayam in Warangal, and Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Mallur in Bhupalpally district and others.

At Thousand Pillar temple in Warangal, the rituals began under the guidance of chief priest G Upendra Sharma at 3 am with Panchamrutabhishekam to Mula Ganapathy followed by Ekadasa Rudrabhishekam to the presiding deity.

TSNPDCL CMD A Gopal Rao, TPCC former president Ponnala Lakshmaiah, along with the party district president N Rajender Reddy, leaders K Srinivasa Rao, EV Srinivas Rao visited Thousand Pillar temple and offered special prayers.

In the evening, Siva kalyanostavam was performed during which MLA D Vinay Bhasker offered Pattu vastralu. Barricades were put in place to ensure smooth flow of devotees at the temple. Queue line was formed for about one kilometre on the road as the number of the devotees was high.  

The rush of devotees at Mallikarjuna Swamy temple at Inavolu, where the temple’s annual jatara was being celebrated, increased on Tuesday. Special programmes were conducted at Veerabhadra Swamy temple at Kuravi in Mahabubabad district and ancient Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Palakurthy. The district administration made special arrangements at Sri Kaleshwara Muktheeshwara Swamy temple on the banks of river Godavari, where the temple jatara was underway marking Maha Sivaratri festival.

The TSRTC operated special buses from Warangal, Bhupalpally, Mancherial, Godavarikhani, Karimnagar, Sironcha and Manthani to the temple. Manthani MLA Putta Madhu offered silk robes to Muktheeswara Swamy.

Mahabubabad SP N Koti Reddy offered special prayers at Kuravi Veerabhadra Swamy temple.It might be noted that the erstwhile Warangal district has got about 323 Shiva temples, each with significance and historical background of its own and Lord Siva in different incarnations. Most of the temples in the district were ‘Swayambhu’ temples, built during Kakatiya era as the rulers were devotees of Lord Shiva.