The devotee rush peaked at the Kanaka Durga temple atop Indrakeeladri here on Friday.
Approximately, 70,000 devotees had darshan of the presiding deity of Goddess Kanaka Durga, adorned as ‘Sri Lalitha Tripura Sundari Devi’ on the fifth day of the Dasara festivities. The temple authorities said the pilgrim rush might touch one lakh by night.
Usually, the pilgrim footfalls touch one lakh on the ‘Moola Nakshatram’ day when the presiding deity is worshipped as Goddess Saraswati.
The sudden rush was attributed to announcement of Dasara holidays for schools and colleges. There were serpentine queues up to the Ashoka pillar downhill as the crowds swelled by the hour. The devotees thronged the ghats right from the early hours of the day.
More than 25,000 devotees had darshan of the deity till noon. The Annadanam area downhill, near Sivalayam, where ‘prasadam’ is served, was packed to capacity. The staff served ‘prasadam’ to more than 30,000 devotees by evening against 18,000 till the previous day.
Devotee dies
Meanwhile, a devotee, G. Sri Rama Chandra Murthy, 57, from Hyderabad collapsed near the ‘Antaralayam’ of the temple. The medical teams atop Indrakeeladri shifted him to the Government General Hospital, where doctors declared him dead. Quoting his relatives, the officials said Murthy was a diabetic and had some cardiac problem.
