Hyderabad: Bonalu begins with safety norms amid Covid fear

Applying tilak and distributing prasadam have been banned

All devotees have to wear face masks, sanitise hands and go through thermal screening before entering temple

Hyderabad: The Telangana State on Thursday began celebrating Bonalu festivities in an unprecedent manner by maintaining social distancing norms due to Covid pandemic.

The Bonalu festival where Goddess Mahakali is worshipped, celebrations started at all the Mahankali temples in Old City including Mahankali Devalayam in Uppuguda, Sri Mahakaleshwaram Mandir in Mir Alam Mandi etc. This year, Simhavahini Sri Mahankali Devalayam at Lal Darwaza is celebrating 112th year of festivities. Early morning, the Lal Darwaza temple was sanitised and special pooja 'Amara Abhishekam' was organised. The first Bonam was presented by the Bandlaguda MRO, Farheen Shaik and pooja was held by Narsimhaya Sharma.

"The temple committee is following all safety norms and precautions including thermal screening and sanitising before allowing devotees to enter the temple. Wearing face mask has been made mandatory, devotees stand in queues maintaining distance without crowding," said newly elected chairman, J Laxminarayan Goud.

The temple committee made arrangements for providing face masks. Only two to three women devout carrying Bonam were allowed inside the temple, he added.

He said that "For the first time after pooja applying tilak (mark on forehead) and distributing prasadam was prohibited."

Earlier, the Bonalu festivities used to be celebrated for 11 days in which hundreds of devotees performed pooja and women took 'Bonam' on their heads. More than 2 lakh devotees attended the procession on the last two days, but this year, the Bonalu utsavalu was being celebrated for whole one month to avoid crowding. "The women devout have entire month to perform pooja and offer Bonam. There will no procession on the last two days this year as per government orders," said K Venkatesh, Vice President of committee.

He requested the devotees to maintain safety norms during the festivities and cooperate with temple committee.