VIJAYAWADA: Large number of devotees thronged Lord Rama and Anjaneya Swamy temples across the city and district to witness the divine wedding of Rama and his consort Sita on the occasion of Sri Rama Navami on Sunday. Right from dawn, the festive mood began with pandals, erected for the purpose at several localities, playing devotional songs.
One of the city’s oldest festival committees at Besant Road performed the rituals at Kodanda Ramalayam on a grand note by adorning the deities with silk clothes amid chanting of vedic hymns and ‘mangalavadyalu’ in the specially decorated kalyana mandapam. Priests performed the rituals at 12 noon on ‘punarvasu nakshatra yukta abhijit lagna pushkaramsa’ and the devotees offered 10 kgs of ‘mutyala talambralu’ (pearls) to the processional deities on the occasion.
Besides that, the committee, with assistance from certain individuals, had set up stalls for distribution of panakam, a drink prepared with jaggery, spices and ‘vadapappu’, at several places to passers-by.
A few festival committees even distributed wedding cards with the names of Dasaratha Maharaj and Mithilapuri Raja Janaka mentioned on them to locals for the ‘kalyanam’.
Along with this, the ritual was also performed in a few residential colonies and apartments located in areas such as Satyanarayanapuram, One Town, Benz Circle, Patamata, and Krishna Lanka, and also in Dasanjaneya Swamy temple Machavaram.