BHADRACHALAM : Lakhs of people thronged the temple town to witness the celestial wedding of Lord Rama and his consort Goddess Sita at Ramachandraswamy temple on Monday. The devotees went into raptures as mangalasutram was tied amidst the chanting of vedic hymns, blowing of conch and the beating of drums. All roads in the town thronged with devotees as the devout began pouring into the venue in the wee hours. Humid and hot weather, sleeplessness, security hassles and inadequate facilities did not deter them from participating in the Kalyanotsavam.The decorated deities were brought in a colourful procession to the kalyana mantapam, where they were seated on the silver simhasanam.
As per tradition, Chief Minister is supposed to offer mutyala talambralu and pattuvastralu to Lord Rama on behalf of the state government, but this time K Chandrashekar Rao did not attend and Minister for Roads and Buildings Tummala Nageswa Rao, Endowments Minister A Indrakaran Reddy and Animal Husbandry Minister T Srinivasa Yadav offered pattuvastralu and mutyala talambralu to Lord Rama.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam authorities and Sri Tridandi China Jeeyar Swamy also offered pattuvastralu and ornaments to the deities. Kalyanam was performed as per Panchamantra Agamasastras while Pravalika ritual was performed at 10.55 am. The idols were later adorned with golden yagnopaveetham and chintakupathakam, gifted by Bhakta Ramadas.
In the wake of the last month’s encounter in Chattisgarh, security was beefed up in and around the temple premises. High Court Chief Justice Ramesh Rangnath, Mahabubabad MP Seetaram Naik, former MP Porika Balaram Naik, Kanumuri Bapi Raju, District Collector Rajiv Gandhi Hanumanthu, SP Ambari Kishore Jha, Endowments Commissioner Shankar, EO Prabhakar Srinivas, Bhadrachalam sub-collector Pamela Sathpat, ASP Sangram Singh Patel , MLCs Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy, Balasani Laxminarayana and other officials and non officials participated.Temple authorities had set up 18 counters in various places in the town and distributed kalyana talambralu and laddu prasadam. Hyderabad range IG Y Nagi Reddy has monitored security arrangements.