Heavy rush at Srikalahasti temple on Thai Amavasya
Srikalahasti: Srikalahasti Devasthanam witnessed heavy rush of devotees on Sunday as thousands thronged the temple to offer prayers to Lord Srikalahasteeswara and Goddess Gnana Prasunambika. The heavy turnout, driven by the weekend and the conclusion of the festival season coinciding Thai Amavasya, turned the ancient shrine into a sea of humanity from the early hours of the day.
Even before the temple doors opened in the morning, all queue lines were fully packed. Devotees arrived in large numbers to perform special poojas, particularly the popular Rahu–Ketu rituals, before proceeding for darshan. This sudden and sustained inflow led to unexpected congestion, causing considerable inconvenience to common pilgrims who had to wait for long hours. From early morning until the temple closed late at night, over 30,000 devotees had darshan of the presiding deities. A total of 7,220 Rahu–Ketu poojas were performed during the day. Of these, 4,153 devotees purchased Rs.500 tickets, followed by 1,558 devotees opting for Rs.750 tickets. Another 741 devotees performed the pooja with Rs.1,500 tickets, 522 with Rs.2,500 tickets, and 246 devotees chose the Rs.5,000 category. These pooja tickets alone generated a revenue of Rs.68.91 lakh for the Devasthanam.
In addition, 5,469 devotees purchased darshan tickets, including 2,954 Seeghra Darsanam tickets. Special entrance tickets were taken by 2,150 devotees, while 365 opted for the Antaralaya darshan. Reflecting the massive footfall, more than 30,000 packets of various prasadams were sold throughout the day. Although four separate queue lines were arranged in both the Lord and Goddess temples to facilitate smoother darshan for ordinary devotees, the arrangements proved inadequate during peak hours. Frequent movement of devotees opting for inner sanctum darshan led to repeated halts in other queues.
As Sunday coincided with Thai Amavasya, temple officials were occupied with festival-related duties, and police personnel were deployed to manage the queues. Authorities said steps were taken to regulate the crowd and ensure orderly movement of devotees despite the heavy rush.
