'Bonalu' celebrated with fanfare

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, JULY 30. `Bonalu' was celebrated with fanfare in the Old City on Sunday amidst heavy police bandobust.

The temples of Goddess Mahankali were painted and colourfully decorated with flowers and neem leaves. The streets leading to the temples were spruced up and saffron flags were pitched on either sides of the roads. Women and girls dressed in traditional finery carried `bonalu' on their heads and went to the Mahankali temples for `darshan' of the presiding deity.

All Mahankali temples were crowded with devotees. Youngsters along with the `potharajus' danced to the `teen mar' drumbeat. Even as women, children and men thronged the temples the police kept a close watch on the proceedings. Along with the devotees the men in `khaki' were seen near all the temples. The mobile patrol teams also kept moving in the lanes and bylanes.

Final arrangements were being made near the temples for Monday's `Bonalu' procession. Small daises were set up near the temples, including Sri Akkanna Madanna Mahankali Mandiram at Hari Bowli and Mutyalamma Temple at Gowlipura, to entertain the devotees with some cultural programmes. At Akkanna Madanna temple a photo exhibition about the previous years' celebrations was also organised.

The Home Minister, Mr. T. Devender Goud, Union Minister of State for Urban Development, Mr. Bandaru Dattatreya, Labour Minister, Mr. C. Krishna Yadav, APCC (I) president, Mr. M. Satyanarayana Rao and several other VIPs visited the Mahankali temples in the Old City.

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Section  : Southern States
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