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.
