Karthika Brahmotsavams concluded at Tiruchanoor

Tiruchanoor, DEC 7: The annual Karthika Brahmotsavams of Goddess Padmavathi Devi at Tiruchanoor concluded on a grand, colourful note on Saturday with tens of thousands of pilgrims taking holy bath along with 'Sri Sudarshana Chakrattalwar' on the auspicious of day of Panchami Teertham which marks the ceremonious ending of the nine-day religious event.

Earlier during the day, the sare has been brought from Tirumala to Tiruchanoor. Tirumala JEO Sri KS Sreenivasa Raju handed over the sare to his Tirupati counterpart Sri P Bhaskar. TTD Chairman Sri K Bapiraju, EO Sri MG Gopal were also present.

Later Snapana Tirumanjana Mahotsavam has been performed to the processional deity of Goddess Sri Padmavathi Devi and Sri Sudarshana Chakrattalwar palced on a golden platform in Panchami Mandapam. The temple priests peroformed the celestial bath with milk, curd, honey, coconut and turmeric. During the interval for every bath, the deities were decorated with finely knitted floral garlands including those made of wild cuscus, white cuscus, rasp berries(type of grapes), purple orchids etc. which stood as special attraction. Especially while rendering bath in honey mixed with the seeds of pomegranate, it appeared as if the Goddess is being rendered a holy bath with corals.

The Goddess was decorated with a special ornament 'Pacha Pathakam' jewel brought from Tirumala as a token of gift from Lord Venkateswara to His beloved on the auspicious occasion. The Goddess was also decorated with pasupu, kumkuma, sare that was brought from Tirumala on the temple elephants.

TEMPLE LEGEND:

Sukabrahmamuni Dheyeye! Sada Pujye Sanatana!
Padmodbhave Mahalakshmi! Prasanna Bhavame Sada!

As per the temple legend, Lord Srinivasa (Lord Venkateswara) observed penace for 12 years in this holy temple town of Tiruchanoor for Goddess Mahalakshmi who left Him owing to sage Bhrigu episode. The Lord is said have created the spacious, aesthetic, fresh temple tank of Padma Sarovaram here with His own hands and planted golden lotuses brought from heaven. On this auspicious day of Panchami in the month of Karthika, Goddess Mahalakshmi took the incarnation of Goddess Padmavathi and appeared on one of the golden lotuses in the temple tank.

'GARUDA' APPEARS: As soon as the ritual started, as usual like in the previous years, an eagle made rounds in the sky as if it is the sign of Lord Venkateswara who sent His favaourite vehicle 'Garuda' to watch the proceedings on the final day of brahmotsavams. The huge gathering of pilgrims who have been awaiting this exceptional sight, loudly chanted 'Govinda' nama out of great enthusaism, as soon as they watched this rare glimpse as the entire Padmasarovaram echoed and reverberated with the divine chants.

After the completion of the celestial bath ceremony, the Chakrattalwar was brought to Padmasarovaram by the temple priests in Dhanur Lagnam slated between 12.05pm to 12.15pm and was given a holy dip in the temple tank waters. Every inch of the temple tank was occupied by the pilgrims and when once all of them took holy dip along with the Chakrattalwar, it appeared as if the temple tank was flooded by a wave of humanity.

TTD Chairman Sri K.Bapi Raju, TTD EO Sri MG Gopal, Joint Executive Officers Sri KS Sreenivasa Raju, Sri Pola Bhaskar, Suptd of Police( Urban) Sri Rajasekhar Babu, DyEO(PAT) Sri Bhaskar Reddy, AEO Smt. Nagarathana, Supdt Engineer Sri Ramachandra Reddy, VGO Sri Hanumanthu, Temple staff and devotees took part.

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