Vijayawada Durga tempe readies for 9-day Dasara fete

Vijayawada: The Durga temple administration has decided to celebrate the annual Dasara festival from October 17 to 25 by strictly following the Covid guidelines and ensure safety of all devotees visiting the temple and the staff attending to the duties during the prestigious festivities.

Due to drastic fall of devotees visiting the temple from an average of 20,000 to 30,000 per day before the lockdown period to only 6,000 to 7,000 per day now due to Covid pandemic, the officials are planning to celebrate festival without much fanfare and avoid unnecessary expenditure.

But, all rituals will be performed as usual during the nine days festival. Notable point is the temple administration will reduce the expenditure for arrangements this year compared to previous year. The temple administration spent lakhs of rupees for arranging long queue lines with barricades from Vinayaka temple to the Durga temple passing via ghat road, cooking and serving free meals to a large number of devotees, distribution of Prasadam and for illumination of temple along the ghat road, Canal road and other premises etc. This year, the maintenance expenses are likely to come down as number of devotees visiting the temple may fall compared to previous year.

The temple administration prepares a report on the estimated expenditure every year before the festival for the approval from the government. Durga temple Executive Officer M V Suresh Babu told The Hans India that a meeting with the Endowments officials and the Trust Board members will be convened before September 20 to prepare plan of action to conduct the annual Dasara festivities.

He said the Covid pandemic has huge impact on the revenue of the temple and the flow of devotees since the lockdown began in March, 2020.

Before the lockdown was implemented in the State, 20,000 to 30,000 devotees used to visit the temple for the darshan of Goddess Kanaka Durga. Due to Covid pandemic, the figure drastically declined to 6,000 to 7,000 per day, said the Executive Officer.

He said all rituals will be followed during Dasara celebrations and necessary arrangements will be made to avoid inconvenience to the visiting devotees and temple staff. The temple administration has released the schedule of Alankarams to be followed during the nine-day fete.

On the first day October 17, the presiding deity will be adorned as Sri Swarnakavachalankruta Durga Devi October 18, the deity will be seen as Sri Bala Tripura Sundari Devi. On October 19, the Goddess will be adorned as Sri Gayatri Devi and on October 20, the deity will be decorated as Sri Annapurna Devi.

On the day of Mula Nakshatram, October 21, the deity will be decorated as Sri Saraswati Devi and she will be adorned as Sri Lalitha Tripura Sundari Devi on October 22.

On October 23, Durgamma will give darshan to devotees as Sri Mahalakshmi Devi. On October 24 the deity will be decorated as Sri Mahishasura Mardani Devi and Sri Durga Devi in two Avatarams. On the last day October 25, the Goddess will be attired in Sri Raja Rajeswari Devi alankaram and Teppotsavam will be conducted in River Krishna in the evening on the same day.

The temple administration is planning to allow the devotees as per the time slot booking to prevent heavy rush in the queue lines.

Dasara is celebrated with fanfare in Vijayawada and more than one lakh devotees used to visit the temple for darshan of the presiding deity.

But, due to Covid lockdown, the RTC and the Railways have suspended services and it may hit the attendance of devotees to the temple this year.

On the other hand, the temple administration decided to follow Covid guidelines very strictly in and around the temple during the celebrations.

Wearing mask, maintenance of physical distance by devotees and staff is must in the temple. Besides, the devotees must wear hand gloves also, said temple EO Suresh Babu. He said all Covid guidelines will be followed and precautions will be taken to ensure safety of all devotees and staff, he added.