Radhotsavam enthrals devotees

Podili: A large number of devotees waited for hours from the afternoon on Podili roads to have a glimpse of the deities on the chariot and seek blessings of the celestial couple in Sri Parvati sameta Nirmamaheswara Swami Rathotsavam held on Tuesday.

As part of the Maha Shivaratri festival, it is a tradition here for more than three centuries to bring the deities to the streets in the chariot to bless the devotees irrespective of the caste and creed. 

The history of the place says that the temple was constructed by Venkatagiri Rajas and Srikrishna Deveraya donated the chariot to the temple. The temple chairman Samantapudi Nageswara Rao said that the age-old chariot was used up to 2010 and the new steering model chariot was made with Rs 40 lakh of own funds. 

The former MLA Kandula Narayana Reddy, temple chairman Nageswara Rao and leaders from all parties participated in the puja and took part in the Rathotsavam. The streets thronged by the elders, youth, and children were resonated with the chants of Harom Hara… Harom Hara… as the chariot moves ahead.

On the other side, the rock boulder pulling competition for bulls continued for the second and last day. A pair of bulls from Peddaraveedu won the first prize of Rs 30000, while another pair from the same village won the second prize of Rs 25000. 

The third prize of Rs 20000 was won by the pair of bulls from J Panguluru and the bulls pair from Darsi won the fourth prize of Rs 10000.