Date:02/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/02/stories/2008040255490600.htm

Andhra Pradesh

New seva performed at Mangapuram temple

Special Correspondent

Five tons of flowers of different hues offered to the deities

An elaborate religious ceremony marks the formal introduction
This will become annual festival in the temple, says TTD EO

Unique ritual: The deities of Lord Sri Kalyana Venkateswara and His two consorts are seen amid a heap of flowers during the Pushpa Yagam at TTD’s Srinivasa Mangapuram temple near Tirupati on Tuesday.

TIRUPATI: For the first time in this history of the Srinivasa Mangapuram tample near here, the TTD has performed a ‘Pushpa Yagam’ to the processional deities of Kalyana Venkateswaraswamy and His two consorts—Sridevi and Bhoodevi. An elaborate religious ceremony as prescribed in the Vaikhanasa Agama Sasthra marked the formal introduction of the special festival in the temple on the lines of the one in vogue in the hill temple of Lord Venkateswara, Tirumala.

During the Pushpa Yagam lasting nearly two hours, about five tonnes of flowers of different hues and fragrance were offered to the deities so much that they (the bejeweled icons) literally got drowned in the mounds of flowers such as rose, jasmine, davanam, chamanthi, Ganneru, Thulasi and so on.. A battery of priests emptied baskets and baskets of flowers on the deities even as the vedic pundits chanted verses from the scriptures. The flowers were later distributed as ‘prasadam’ to the devotees who thronged the temple to witness the new seva.

A ‘Veda Sathumurai’ and Santhi Manthra recitation were also performed later seeking the blessings of the Almighty for peace and tranquility in the world and in the Indian sub-continent. The fete concluded with the procession of the deity round the four mada streets in which a large number of pilgrims participated.

K.V. Ramanachary, Executive Officer of the TTD has said that the ‘Pushpa Yagam’ introduced in the temple today on the eve of ‘Sravana Nakshthram’—the birth star of Lord Venkateswara, would become an annual festival in the temple in future and would go on unhindered. The price of the Seva ticket is pegged at at Rs.516/- and two persons could participate in the ritual on each ticket.

TTD’s Deputy Executive Officers A. Vasudevan and T.A.P. Narayana were present.