Thousands of devotees took part in the ‘Varalakshmi Vratham’ rituals in virtual mode at Sri Padmavathi temple at Tiruchanur.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) introduced the online tickets for devotees for the vratham owing to the restrictions imposed after the sharp spike in coronavirus caes in the temple towns of Tirumala and Tirupati.
According to temple officials, the move to allow online participation of devotees in the rituals evoked a good response.
More than 3,500 tickets were sold for participation in the rituals in virtual mode on Friday, when compared to 1,500 tickets that usually get sold every year when devotees could take part in the rituals at the temple in person.
“Even as the rituals were performed in ‘ekantam’ (in private) this year, the rise in the number of participants is significant,” said TTD Executive Officer Anil Kumar Singhal.
The priests performed ‘Sri Varalakshmi Vratham’ as per the tradition by worshipping the presiding deity with fragrant flowers and sacred nine threads (Navagrandhi). Agama advisor K. Srinivasacharyulu explained the significance of the vratham’ as explained in ‘Bhavishyottara Purana’.
MP Vemireddy Prabhakara Reddy, TTD board members Govind Hari, Vemireddy Prashanthi Reddy, Joint Executive Officer P. Basant Kumar, Additional Chief Vigilance and Security Officer T. Sivakumar Reddy, Padmavathi temple DEO Jhansi Rani and Archaka Babu Swamy participated in the rituals.
