Hyderabad: A large number of devotees thronged the popular Sri Gnana Saraswathi temple at Basara on the banks of Godavari River in Nirmal district on Wednesday in connection with the auspicious day - ‘Moola Nakshatram,’ the birth star of Goddess Saraswathi Devi during ongoing Dasara navaratri festivities.
More than 40,000 devotees, mostly women from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh turned up to offer special prayers at the temple. Many families performed ‘Aksharabhyasam’ to their children.
‘Aksharabhyasam’ is usually performed during ‘Vasant Panchami’ and ‘Moola Nakshatra’. Owing to the bitter experience faced by the devotees in queue at the temple during ‘Vasant Panchami’ last time, the temple management in coordination with the district administration and the police department made elaborate arrangements for the convenience of devotees.
Separate queues were maintained for those who are going to have only darshan of the Goddess and for the parents performing ‘Aksharabhyasam’ to their children, bringing a major relief for everyone including the staff in tackling the rush.
“Considering the previous experiences, we made elaborate arrangements for devotees with proper coordination with all departments concerned. Our efforts yielded positive results enabling devotees to have darshan in a hassle-free manner,” Basara temple executive officer V. Vijayarama Rao told Deccan Chronicle.
Wooden chairs were provided for devotees standing in queue and ‘badham’ milk was also served. “We started allowing parents to the temple from 2 am to perform ‘Aksharabhyasam’ to avoid rush during the day time,” he explained.
Given the response from today’s arrangements, the temple management has decided to continue the same during major festivals including ‘Vasant Panchami’.
On their part, the police officials gave serious instructions to their staff not to allow the persons known to them from the exit route to facilitate free darshan. They said anyone found to be disobeying orders would face stern action as the entire temple including queues was monitored using surveillance cameras.
Elsewhere in the city, the Goddess Saraswathi Devi temples teemed with devotees. At Gnana Saraswathi Devi temple near Gandhi hospital in Musheerabad, more than 5,000 people visited to offer prayers, said temple manager Bandi Srinivas.
