Sunday midnight was an auspicious time for the devotees of goddess Bhavani of Tulajapur of Maharastra. Every year, the full-moon night is believed to be auspicious for this goddess.
Tulaja Bhavani has crores of devotees in Maharastra and northern-part of Karnataka. It is believed that she wakes up from her sleep at this time and continues the duty of protecting people.
Goddess Tulaja Bhavani, who is also the state goddess of Maharashtra, is believed to go to sleep on the next day of Vijaya Dashami, that is Ekadashi. She would sleep for four days continuously and take rest after performing her duty of protecting people for continuous 361 days in the year.
A devotee from Ganiga community would wake up the goddess at 12 midnight on the fourth day, that is full-moon night (Seege Hunnime) and the rituals of Suprabhata and Abhisheka would begin.
The devotees throng Tulaja Bhavani temple to see the awake goddess and to seek her blessings on the first day after her sleep.
The people of Gulbarga and Bidar districts including men, women, children and elders start Pada Yatra to Tulajapur on the next day of Dasara so that they can reach Tulajapur a day prior to Seege Hunnime, by travelling about 250 kms from Gulbarga and Bidar.
Most of the devotees ravel bare-foot to reach Tulajapur. They start at 5 am every day, stopping at 11.30 am and resting up to 4 pm, and restarting Pada Yatra at 4 pm, concluding it for the day by 9pm.
The local devotes arrange food and snacks for these Pada Yatris on the road, at every 2 kms. Apart from this, NEKRTC has arranged special bus services to Tulajapur from Gulbarga, Humnabad and Bidar since last two days. The passenger train from Wadi to Solapur and Udyana Express was jam-packed on Saturday and Sunday morning, while the devotees were seen sitting on the roofs of these trains. From Solapur, they would go to Tulajapur which is hardly two hours away by bus.
These devotees return to their destinations on Monday morning after having Darshana of goddess Bhavani. According to an official, an estimated 1.5 lakh people of Gulbarga and Bidar district have already gathered in Tulajapur awaiting the Darshana of the goddess.