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Fervour marks annual Sirimanotsavam

Correspondent

Devotees throng temple from early hours to fulfil their vows

HIGH PRIEST!: Hereditary priest of the Sirimanu Utsavam, Bairagi Naidu (sitting on the trunk of a tree which was chopped off for the festival), being watched by enthusiastic devotees from rooftops at Vizianagaram on Tuesday. — Photo: K.R. Dee pak

VIZIANAGARAM: Religious fervour marked the annual Sirimanotsavam of goddess Pydimamba here on Tuesday. Devotees thronged the temple at three lanterns junction from early hours and waited in serpentine queues to fulfil their vows.

Trustees offer prayers

The hereditary trustees of the temple P. Ananda Gajapathiraju and P. Ashok Gajapathiraju and Minister for Marketing B. Satyanarayana offered prayers at the temple in the morning.

A couple of hours before the Sirimanu procession began crowds took positions at vantage points to have a good view of the celebrations.

The head priest Bantupalli Byraginaidu, who could not take part in the utsav last year due to ill-health, was brought in a procession from his house to the temple.

After he was seated in a chair in front of the temple, devotees touched his seat as they believed that the priest represents the Ammavaru this day.

Minutes after he mounted the specially erected seat atop the 50-foot sirimanu (tree-trunk) .

With the priest dangling from one end of it, devotees pulled the cart from the temple to the fort three times. People who gathered in tens of thousands on either side of the route and on high-rise buildings to witness the procession rained bananas as an offering to Ammavaru.

The hereditary trustees of the temple witnessed the celebrations from atop the fort. Minister for Marketing B. Satyanarayana and his wife and ZP Chairperson B. Jhansilakshmi were seen seated in the District Cooperative Central Bank complex.

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