SRIKAKULAM: Thousands of devotees visited Arasavalli Sun Temple on the occasion of the annual Surya Jayanthi (Ratha Saptami) on Tuesday. Utter chaos prevailed due to lack of coordination between endowments, revenue and police officials in controlling the huge rush of devotees.The celebrations began at Sri Suryanarayana Swamy temple at Arasavalli as per temple traditions and customs on Monday midnight.
Due to unavoidable reasons, Visakha Sharda Peetham Uttadikari Sri Swatmanandendra Saraswati could not attend the event. Endowment officials and temple priests launched the celebrations by performing milk anointing, Dwadasa Harati and Maha Nivedhana.Deputy Chief Minister Dharmana Krishana Das launched the darshan for devotees by performing first puja after 12 midnight on Tuesday.
Assembly Speaker Tammineni Seetharam, MLAs G Kiran Kumar, Reddi Santhi, B Appalanaidu, K Veerabadhra Swamy, Visakha range DIG LKV Rangarao, district collector Shrikesh Latkhar, Superintendent of Police Amith Bardar, various political leaders and other officials had darshan along with their families.
Kakinada Sri Peetham pontiff Paripurnananda had darshan at the temple on Tuesday morning. Minister for Endowments Vellampalli Srinivas presented silk robes on behalf of the government to Lord Suryanarayana Swamy.
Devotees cooked milk rice (Ksirannam) on Indra Puskarini premises and presented it to the Sun God by performing Surya Namaskarams in the morning. “At least 50,000 devotees had darshan till 6pm on Tuesday. Devotees will be allowed until 11:59 pm Tuesday,” temple EO V Hari Suryaprakesh told TNIE.