Dhammakka Sevayatra held on grand scale

Bhadrachalam: Dhammakka Sevayatra was organised on a grand note here on Saturday by Sri Sita Ramachandra Swamy temple and ITDA jointly in memory of a tribal woman, Pokala Dhammakka, who found the idols of Lord Rama, Lakshamana and Sita in the 17th century.

Temple priests performed the sevayatra. Thousands of devotees from neighbouring districts attended. Thousands of tribals from 29 mandals visited the temple, offered special prayers since early morning and had darshan. They paid floral tributes to Dhamakka statue.

Dhammakka, an ardent devotee of Lord Rama, lived at Bhadrareddypalem, a mile away from the holy shrine during the 17th century. It is said she had ‘darshan’ of Lord Rama, who asked her to trace his idols worshipped by sages to attain ‘moksha’. The next day Dhammakka found the idols in a ant-hill.

She poured hundreds of pots of Godavari water on the ant-hill which got dissolved leading to the appearance of the deities. She performed puja, offered ‘naivedyam’ to the deity and constructed a small mandapam helped by villagers. Lord Rama appeared in dream and told her that a devotee would construct a temple for him. The devotee turned out to be Bhaktha Ramadas.

Govindarajula Swamy Kalyanam was performed in the evening, with tribals offering ‘talambralu’, flowers, fruits to the deity and performing traditional dances. Temple EO M Ramesh Babu, Assitant EO Sravan Kumar supervised the festival arrangements.