Celestial wedding amid devotional frenzy

​Mahabubabad/Bhupalpally: Grandeur marked Sri Rama Navami celebrations as part of which the celestial wedding of Lord Rama and His Consort Sita Devi was celebrated at different temples here on Monday.

In Mahabubabad town, at Gandhi Park abutting Sri Rama Mandiram, where the celestial wedding was conducted for the 60th year, large scale arrangements similar akin to Sri Sita Ramachandra Swamy Temple at Bhadrachalam were made.

Local MLA B Shankar Naik attended the celestial wedding and presented ‘silk vastrams’ and pearl ‘thalambralu’ to the deities as the custom for the past many years. The devotees have overcome with religious fervour as the priests performed elaborate rituals as per the tradition.  

District superintendent of police N Koti Reddy, joint collector K Damodar Reddy, and DSP A Naresh Kumar and others also attended the celebrations. As many as 15,000 devotees from villages surrounding the town took part in the celebration.

Speaking on the occasion, the MLA informed that the State government sanctioned Rs1.5 crore for the construction of new temple in the place of the existing one. The construction works were nearing completion and the temple would be ready for inauguration in three months. Ramothsava Committee 
programme convener and government teacher Voore Gurunadha Rao said Sri Rama Navami celebrations were held for the first time in 1959 at the temple. 

Initially the celebrations were organised local railway authorities. In 1970, civilians took over the responsibility of conducting celebrations by forming a committee, which was head by a teacher Voore Rama Koteswar Rao and in 1983 the Endowments Department took over the temple affairs.

Ramothsava Committee officer bearers Gurunadha Rao, M Venkanna, Male Nageshwr Rao, K Yadagiri, Shyam Loya and others actively engaged in making the arrangements for the event. The volunteers of SS Loya Trust, Vasavi Club distributed buttermilk and ‘prasadam’ to the devotees.

In view of large gathering of devotees, police made elaborate security arrangements at the temple. Later on the day, a ‘Shoba Yatra’ of Lord Rama was taken in the streets of Mahabubabad by Chatrapathi Shivaji Sena. MLA Shanker Naik, BJP leader Y Sethaiah and A Ashok Reddy took part in it.

Assembly Speaker S Madhusudhana Chary, who was on ‘Palle Pragathi yatra’ in Bhupalpally assembly constituency, took part in Sri Rama Navami celebrations at a Ramalayam at Rupureddypalle in Regonda mandal of Jayashanker Bhupalpally district.  He offered ‘silk vastrams’ and ‘thalambralu’ to the deities.  

Speaking on the occasion, the Speaker said according to the tradition peace and prosperity prevails in the land where the Kalyanam of the Lord Rama And His Consort Sita was performed and hence the Sita-Rama Kalyanam holds great significance in Hindu society, he added.