Lakhs of devotees offer bonams at Peddagattu Jatara
The devotees wearing traditional dresses and holding 'Trishulas', a weapon carried by Lord Lingamanthula Swamy, stood as a special attraction at the jatara.
Suryapet: Over seven lakh devotees attended Sri Lingamanthula Swamy jatara on Monday, an important day of the four-day biennial fete. The devotees not only from across Telangana but also from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu arrived at the jatara, also popular as Peddagattu jatara. This led to a traffic jam on the National Highway-65, forcing police to divert vehicles going towards Vijayawada on alternative routes.
Devotees camped in the area around the Peddagattu hillock up to a radius of 2.5 km. The Sri Lingamanthula Swamy temple started witnessing a huge rush of devotees right from 9 am and the rush peaked by noon.
Peddagattau reverberated with the beats of traditional drums “Bheeris” and the chanting of “Oo Linga .. Oo Linga”. They made circumambulations (Pradakshinas) around the temple along with the sheep, which later were sacrificed at the jatara. Plays of the devotees in traditional dresses become a main attraction at the jatara.
Lakhs of women prepared bonams using special ingredients, kept them in specially decorated baskets, made ‘pradikshinas’ at the temple as part of the ritual ‘Gampala Pradikshina’, and offered them to Goddess Chowdamma at the temple on Monday. Devotees wearing traditional dresses and holding ‘Trishulas’ (tridents), a weapon carried by Lord Lingamanthula Swamy, were a special attraction at the jatara.
After the arrival of the divine box ‘Deverapette’ at the temple on Sunday midnight, hundreds of sheep were sacrificed to the presiding deity by the devotees. As thousands of sheep were sacrificed, the municipal authorities took special care to clean the place every hour.
The issueless women tied ‘mudupulu’ and candles to a tree beside the temple and prayed Sri Lingamanthula Swamy to bless them with children.
Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy, Animal Husbandry Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav and Rajya Sabha member Badugula Lingaiah Yadav participated in the special pooja at the temple.
Srinivas Yadav said Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had released required funds for the temple’s development. He had also revived the past glory of the jatara by allocating crores of rupees for its arrangements. The Kaleshwaram project had changed the face of rural economy in Suryapet district, which, Srinivas Yadav felt, could be seen in the eyes of the devotees from various districts.
Traffic jam for 3 km
Traffic was jammed for three kilometres on the National Highway 65 following a huge rush of the devotees. Though heavy vehicles were diverted to alternative routes, a sudden spurt in the incoming vehicles resulted in a massive jam around noon. It took three hours for police to clear the traffic. Earlier, police diverted all vehicles moving between Hyderabad and Vijayawada to alternative routes.
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