The first Friday of Ashada saw a veritable flood of devotees at Chamundi Hills making a beeline to Sri Chamundeshwari temple for darshan of the presiding deity.
The temple was decorated and embellished with flowers while the surroundings were spruced up for the occasion and the priests officiated and performed a series of rites and rituals throughout the day which is considered to be auspicious for the goddess.
Anticipating a surge in the number of visitors, the district administration had made a slew of arrangements including introduction of additional bus services to cater to the crowd. As is the practice on every Friday of the Ashada season, the entry of private vehicles to the hills was banned in order to prevent clogging and congestion of the narrow but two-lane road leading to the top of the Chamundi Hills.
There was no end to the serpentine queue as wave of devotees alighted from the buses and headed straight to the temple. In view of the rush, the devotees had to wait for a considerably long period before they could gain entry into the temple for darshan of the deity.
In a bid to be among the first to gain entry, hundreds of devotees had reached the temple as early as 3.30 a.m. and waited patiently for the temple to open. The recitation of the sacred hymns and chants reverberated in the temple precincts before the door was thrown open to the devotees.
Chamundi Hills and the temple of Sri Chamundeshwari draw devotees during Ashada season not only from Mysuru but surrounding districts and region adding to the rush.
Shakti service impact
There was a perceptibly high number of women among the crowd and this was attributed to the Shakti scheme providing free ride for women in government buses. Apart from individual women, groups representing different Stree Shakti groups were also conspicuous by their presence.
The number of visitors on the first Friday of the Ashada matched the kind of crowd that used to be seen during the pre-COVID times. During the Ashada season of 2020 and 2021, entry to the temple was banned owing to the pandemic but restrictions were removed in 2022. There is also a practice among a section devotees to walk up the hill using the steps and there was no let up in their numbers despite the district administration introducing additional bus services to cater to the crowd.
KSRTC buses were operated from the grounds opposite the Lalitha Mahal Palace to Chamundi Hills throughout the day. Security had been beefed up with additional posse of police. Devotees and volunteers distributed prasada while Chamundeshwari Seva Samithi had arranged for mass feeding of devotees.
