Tirupati: Efforts on to draw national attention to Gangamma Jatara

Tirupati: The Maha Kumbhabhishekam rituals of ‘Sri Tataiah Gunta Gangamma Devasthanam’ in Tirupati have been going on with religious pomp and gaiety with just two days left for the main festival.

City MLA Bhumana Karunakar Reddy has been spearheading the activities on a grand note to draw the national attention to the famous local folk festival.

He has been leading all the activities from the front and being involved in each and every programme. With his initiative only, the State government has accorded State festival status to the Gangamma Jatara recently. Motivated by this, the MLA wanted to take it to the next level keeping in view the 300-year old festival which involves the religious sentiments of denizens.

There is no surprise that the idea was to make it a symbol of another pride of Tirupati a la Bathukamma Panduga which is being celebrated everywhere by the people of Telangana.

It was decided to celebrate the Gangamma Jatara almost on the lines of Brahmotsavalu with all the paraphernalia. The mega Jatara held like never before last year set the tone for this. Several VIPs visited the temple during the Jatara and presented ‘Sare’ to the Goddess. Even Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy also visited it during Tirumala Brahmotsavams and became the first Chief Minister to visit the temple.

This time also, the MLA and the temple administration decided to distribute around 2.5 lakh packets of Kumkuma prasadam of the Goddess to every house. Already invitation cards were distributed to every family in the city and the publicity activities have gathered momentum with songs on Jatara which were sung by the MLA himself being echoed in the city to give the tempo to the main festival.

The Jatara assumes more significance this time as the temple has been reconstructed and the idol of the Goddess will be re-installed following Maha Kumbhabhishekam on May 5.

These rituals started on May 1 and on the third day the activity started with Go Puja followed by other pujas. On this occasion, Afcons Infrastructure Limited has donated Rs 5 lakh to the Gangamma temple and the cheque was handed over to the temple chairman K Gopi Yadav and EO M Munikrishnaih through MLA Karunakar Reddy, Mayor Dr R Sirisha and Commissioner D Haritha. Deputy Mayors Mudra Narayana and Abhinay Reddy were also present.

During the day, the scientific advisor to the Defence Minister Dr G Satheesh Reddy worshipped Gangamma at the temple. Recalling the ancient tradition of visiting the temple first before going to Tirumala, he lauded the initiative of MLA Bhumana to get more glory to the temple.

He also said that scriptures reveal that the first Jatara in the country began in Tirupati only. Following the tradition of giving Sare to his sister Gangamma by Lord Venkateswara, it has become a practice in every family.