A sudden dip in devotees turn out was witnessed at Kanaka Durga temple on the second day of the Dasara festivities atop Indrakeeladri on Monday, which is unusual as the presiding deity is decked up as goddess Gayatri Devi.
The temple official estimated that about 40,000 devotees would turn up at the hill for darshan. Kanaka Durga temple received more than ₹20 lakh as revenue through various sources such as sale of darshan tickets, including ₹500, ₹300 and ₹100 worth of laddu prasadam. The temple received more than ₹64,000 towards the sale of laddu prasadam, while more than ₹11 lakh was through sale of darshan tickets.
The temple priests deck up the deity as Sri Gayatri Devi to tell the devotees that the Gayatri Devi, as a Mother, protects the one who chants the maha-mantra devotedly by giving them salvation, relief, emancipation, money, food, worldly pleasures and good offspring. Gayathri Devi is the whole and sole cause of ‘Srishti’ (creation), ‘Sthithi’ (well-being) and ‘Laya’ (destruction) of living things.
Deputy Chief Minister (Endowments) Kottu Satyanarayana said that darshan by the common people was top priority of the government. He inspected the queue lines from the downhill of Indrakeeladri, and made suggestions to rectify the mistakes. Later, speaking to reporters, he added that efforts were on to ensure that there was no complaint from the devotees.
The devotees were requested to maintain restraint and cooperate with the staff on duty while naivedyam was being offered to the deity. The devotees are urged to wait patiently in the queue during nivdena time, he added.
