MALKANGIRI: With just a few days left for the annual Badayatra festival, journey of deities Kanamraj, Balraj, Potraj and Mutuyulamma (Jagyanseni) of the hilly shrine Manyamkonda in Kalimela block to Malkangiri town from Polleru in Andhra Pradesh (AP) began on Monday with participation of over 10,000 devotees from AP, Odisha, Telangana and Chhattisgarh.
The four-day festival is scheduled to take place from March 4 to 7. The deities were taken in a procession to Polleru on Sunday for their customary bathing ceremony. After bathing the deities in the Tadakaleru river there, they were brought back to their original abode in Manyamkonda on Monday.
The deities will further set out for Malkangiri town in a grand procession on Wednesday and reach the town on March 4. More than one lakh devotees from all the four states are likely to throng the town to have a darshan of the gods.
The district administration, anticipating a huge crowd, has meanwhile geared up for smooth conduct of the festival. Sub-collector Akshay Kumar Khemudu said all necessary arrangements have been put in place to maintain law and order during the festivities. “Devotees are hereby requested to cooperate with the administration and police and obey parking rules for smooth conduct of the festival,” he added.