VIJAYAWADA: Sri Rama Navami was celebrated with religious fervour at all the Lord Rama temples across the city on Wednesday.
Thousands of devotees participated in the celestial wedding of Sri Sitha Rama Swamy on the occasion of the festival. Temples of Lord Rama and Hanuman reverberated with chants of “Jai Shri Rama” and the streets wore a festive look with the locals performing kalyanotsavam of Sri Sitha Ramachandra Swamy.
On Besant Road, the celestial wedding was performed on a grand note.
The processional deities of Lord Rama and Goddess Sita were decorated with silk clothes and the kalyanotsavam was performed by priests amid chanting of Vedic hymns and ‘mangalavadyalu’ in a specially decorated kalyana mandapam.
The celestial wedding was performed at 12 noon on punarvasu nakshatra yukta abhijit lagna pushkaramsa.
The devotees offered 10 kg Mutyala Talambralu to Lord Rama and Goddess Sita at Kodanda Ramalayam, Besant Road. Vijayawada Central MLA Bonda Umamaheswara Rao and his wife witnessed the divine wedding at Besant Road. A 65 kg laddu was prepared as prasadam and it will be sold in an auction to be held later, said N Bhanu Murthy, festival committee president.
The celestial wedding of Lord Rama and Goddess Sita was performed in a few residential colonies and apartments. Wedding cards were printed a few days in advance in the name of Dasaratha Maharaj and Mithilapuri Raja Janaka and distributed among local people for the divine wedding.
The festival was also celebrated with traditional gaiety at Satyanarayanapuram, One Town, Benz Circle, Patamata, Krishnalanka and Dasanjaneya Swamy temple, Machavaram. The temple trustees distributed delicious panakam, a drink mixed with jaggery and spices like pepper, to people at several pandals. The BJP also celebrated the celestial wedding of Lord Rama and Goddess Sita at its State office. BJP State secretary Jammula Shyam Kishore and Sanghatana State secretary G R Ravindra Raju distributed prasadam to devotees.