Devotees in thousands visited Sri Chamundeshwari temple atop the Chamundi Hills on the first Friday of Ashada season.
It is a hoary tradition among the local people to visit the temple during ‘’Ashada Masa’’ and special prayers and rituals are conducted to mark the occasion. It draws thousands of people from Mysuru and surrounding regions but there was a ban on temple entry in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 norms.Hence the authorities were geared up to handle the crowd in anticipation of a large turnout and had prepared accordingly.
Many devotees walked up the steps and stood in queue since the crack of dawn to gain entry to the temple for darshan. The temple precincts were spruced up and barricaded for regulating the crowd and there was a steady flow of devotees all through the day.
The temple priests began their day ahead of dawn with special rituals and chanting of hymns after which the screen masking the view of the goddess at the sanctum sanctorum was drawn and public allowed for darshan. The inner premises of the temple and the deity were colourfully decorated with flowers.
The district administration had banned the entry of private vehicles as has been the practice since the last few years. Special bus services were operated free of cost by the KSRTC from the temporary stand created at the grounds in front of the Lalitha Mahal Palace. The devotees were ferried up the hills and dropped back at the same place. The authorities had deployed 50 buses to cater to the devotees and they operated from 5.30 a.m. Besides, services were also operated from other parts of the city and surrounding regions in and around Mysuru.
The devotees visiting the hills were advised to carry the proof of being fully vaccinated while a temporary camp was also in place for conducting random tests for COVID-19.
As the Ashada season also coincides with peak monsoon, shelters by way of pandals were also installed. Security had been beefed up with additional deployment of police and senior police officials also visited the hills to take stock of the situation.
