HYDERABAD/ WARANGAL/ADILABAD: Maha Shivaratri was celebrated across Telangana with religous zeal and fervour on Saturday. Devotees chanting ‘Hara Hara Mahadev’ and ‘Om Namah Shivay’ reverbrated near all Shiva temples.
Thousands of devotees thronged various Shiva temples across the State. Adorned with flowers and lights, temples such as Thousand Pillar Temple in Hanamkonda, Ramappa Temple in Mulugu, Mukteswara Swamy Temple in Jayashankar-Bhupalpally, Someshwara Swamy Temple in Jangaon and Veerabhadra Swamy Temple in Kuravi saw a huge attendance of the devotees since early morning.
In the cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, the festival was celebrated with great enthusiasm and joy.
From the early morning hours, the temples were bustling with activity as devotees, many of whom were observing fasts, thronged the temples to offer prayers and perform special abhishekam, archanas, and rudrabhishekam to Lord Shiva.
Many devotees offered their prayers at the famous Ramalingeswara Swamy Temple in Keesaragutta, located on the city outskirts. The devotees also participated in the ‘Jagarana programme’ (staying awake the whole night) and participated in bhajans and prayers.
Shiva temples in several areas, including Shivam Temple, Kukatpally, Ameerpet, Punjagutta, Kachiguda, Tilaknagar, Chandanagar, Balanagar, Gudimalkapur, Ziaguda, Attapur, Gowliguda, Dilsukhnagar, Malakpet, Malkajgiri, Miyapur, Nimboliadda, Masab Tank, and Secunderabad saw hundreds of devotees standing in long queues since morning to offer milk and fruits to the deity.
The Thousand Pillar Temple chief priest, Gangu pendra Sharma performed suprabhataseva, mula ganapathy aradhana and rudrabhishekam during the morning sessions. The celestial wedding of Rudreshwara Swami and Rudreshwari Devi was performed on Saturday evening. Cultural programs were also conducted for the devotees on fast and those performing jagaram the night.
Panchayat Raj minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao offered prayers at the Thousand Pillar temple in Hanamkonda and Someshwara Swamy temple in Palakurthy. Government Chief Whip D Vinay Bhaskar also offered prayers at Thousand Pillar Temple.
Climbing up the cave shrine
Special pujas were performed by the devotees at the ancient cave temple of Sri Someswara Swamy Alayam, located near the famous Kuntala waterfalls in Neradigonda mandal. The authorities arranged a ladder for devotees to climb up to the cave and offer prayers at the shrine.
Pattu vastralu offered
Senior Congress leader Md Ali Shabbir visited several temples in Kamareddy Assembly constituency and offered pattu vastralu (silk clothes) to Lord Shiva. Meanwhile, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) members performed swararchana with their musical instruments at several temples in Nizamabad.
PRIEST DIES OF STROKE DURING PUJA
Khammam: A 48-year-old priest died after suffering a stroke while performing pujas in the Godavari river at a Shiva temple in Snala Laxmipuram village on Saturday. The deceased was identified as Amidevarupu Venkateswarlu, a native of Annarugudem village
in Tallada mandal. He was shifted to a nearby hospital after police personnel saw him collapsing,
but the doctors declared him brought dead.