Thousands of devotees visit Arasavilli sun temple in Andhra Pradesh on the occasion of Ratha Saptami
The Hindu
SRIKAKULAM
Thousands of pilgrims from across the State converged on Arasavilli in Srikakulam district to offer prayers at the Sri Suryanarayana Swamy temple on the occasion of Ratha Saptami on Saturday.
The devotees reached the temple premises from Friday night itself to part in Ksheerabhisekham ritual that began at around 12.15 a.m. on Saturday.
Sarada Peetham’s Uttaradhikari Swatmanandendra, Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly Speaker Thammineni Seetharam, Minister for Revenue Dharmana Prasada Rao and others also participated in the rituals in the early hours of Saturday. Minister for Endowments Kottu Satyanarayana offered ‘silk vastrams’ to the deity on behalf of the State government.
Separate queue lines for ₹500 ticket and ₹100 ticket holders, and for those having free darshan, were arranged. Srikakulam Collector Shrikesh B.Lathkar and Superintendent of Police G.R. Radhika and other officials coordinated the arrangements at the temple.
Volunteers of multiple service organisations distributed water and prasadam packets to the pilgrims. Srikakulam Arya Vysya Sangham leaders arranged prasadam counters at Indira Vignan Bhavan and other places.