Visakhapatnam: Thousands of devotees, including from neighbouring Odisha and Chhattisgarh, visited the Arasavalli Sun Temple on occasion of the annual Surya Jayanthi – Ratha Saptami – on Saturday.
Chaos prevailed, as there had been no coordination between various departments for controlling the huge number of devotees.
Celebrations began in Arasavalli’s Sri Suryanarayana Swamy Temple as per traditions and customs on Friday night. Visakha Sharda Peetham Uttaradhikari Sri Swatmanandendra Saraswati Swamy could not attend the event due to unavoidable circumstances.
Temple priests launched the celebrations by anointing the deity with milk.
Endowment commissioner Dr. Hari Jawaharlal presented silk robes on behalf of the state government during the early hours of Saturday. Fisheries minister Dr. Seedari Appala Raju and his family members performed pujas. Rajam MLA Kambala Jogulu and MLC Duvvada Srinivas also participated in the rituals.
Among officials, Srikakulam collector Srikesh Lathkar and police chief G.R. Radhika were present.
Devotees cooked rice with milk (kheer) on the Indra Puskarini premises. They presented it to the Sun God by performing Surya Namaskaram in the morning.
Around a lakh devotees had darshan till late on Saturday evening.
