Chirala: Sunrays touch feet of Bhavanarayana Swamy at Peda Ganjam

Chirala: Sunrays touched the presiding deity at Bhavanarayana Swamy temple at Peda Ganjam in China Ganjam mandal of Bapatla district on Wednesday. Devotees, who thronged the temple before sunrise, were awestruck after witnessing sunrays touching the God's feet.

Legend says that Lord Rama in Tretayug, who was travelling to Lanka through the area, granted a wish to his devotee Vinata Devi, mother of Garutmantha at Gandhapuri to bless the people in Kaliyug in the incarnation as the Bhu Neela sahitha Bhavanarayana Swamy.

Later Gandhapuri village became Ganjam and then developed into Peda Ganjam and China Ganjam. Historians say that the Mukhamantapam of the age-old Bhavanarayana temple was built by the Chola kings in the eighth century.

Temple priests said that sunrays touch the deity in the temple twice every year, once in March and October as the sun shifts from Uttarayana to Dakshinayana and vice versa. They said that falling of sunrays would continue for three days.

They said scores of devotees visited the temple to pray Bhavanarayana Swamy along with Suryanarayana Swamy at the same time.