Hyderabad: Old city comes alive with Bonalu

A festive atmosphere prevailed in the older parts of the city as the annual Bonalu festival during the Ashada Masam was celebrated on Sunday. From the early morning hours, devotees started thronging the temples.

Hyderabad: A festive atmosphere prevailed in the older parts of the city as the annual Bonalu festival during the Ashada Masam was celebrated on Sunday. From the early morning hours, devotees started thronging the temples. Long queues were witnessed at Akkana Madanna temple, Hari Bowli, Sri Simhavahini Mahankali temple at Lal Darwaza, and other nearby temples in Old City.

Dressed in traditional best, women were seen carrying ‘Bonam’ on their heads and making an offering to the deity at the temples. The streets reverberated with devotional songs even as ‘Pothurajus’ danced to the beats of the ‘teen maar’.

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People from other parts of the city also visited the old city for ‘darshan’ of Goddess Mahankali and to be a part of the festive atmosphere. A long serpentine queue was witnessed at Bhagya Lakshmi temple near Charminar where barricades were arranged to streamline the crowd.

Among those who visited the Sri Simhavahini Mahankali temple were Endowments Minister, A Indrakaran Reddy, Talasani Srinivas Yadav, Mohd Mahmood Ali, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee Chief, A Revanth Reddy, Governor, Haryana and senior BJP leader, Bandaru Dattatreya, Hyderabad Mayor, Gadwal Vijaylaxmi and others.