Silvester D’ Souza
Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (EP)
Kundapur, Oct 15: Thousands of devotees witnessed the Chariot festival held at Mookambika temple here at 8 pm on Thursday, Oct 14 as part of Navarathri festival.
Various poojas and rituals were being held in the temple from the beginning of the Navarathri day till night on Navarathri. The Devi idol was brought out from the temple on Thursday. It was kept on the decorated chariot after the Bali seve.
The procession began after the temple priest performed pooja and Mangalarati. Thousands of devotees shouted slogans to the deity and pulled the chariot. The chariot was pulled around the temple once and pulled back to the original station. The devotees struggled hard to pick the coin the priest threw from the chariot. The devotees waiting to bring down the idol from the chariot pulled the flowers that were used to decorate it and emptied the chariot.
The practice of keeping the idol on a decorated chariot made of wood on the ninth day of Navarathri existed for the last several years. The festival was performed on a golden chariot last year due to some technical reasons. However the management committee decided and conducted the celebrations only on a wooden chariot this year.
Byndoor MLA B M Sukumar Shetty, Bydnoor former MLA K Gopala Poojary, temple management committee president Chandrashekar Shetty Keradi, Kerala crime division ADGP Sathyajit, Kerala BJP unit president Surendran and Manjeshwar based entrepreneur Vijay Rai were present.
Additional deputy commissioner Sadashiva Prabhu, assistant divisional officer K Raju, committee members Ganesh Kini Belve, Jayananda Hobalidar, Dr Atulkumar Shetty, Gopalakrishna Nada, K P Shekar, Sandhya Ramesh, Ratna Kunder, executive officer P B Mahesh, Vadamballi Jayarama Shetty, Ramesh Ganiga Kollur, Kishore Hegde, Udupi district BJP Yuva morcha chief secretary Sharath Kumar Shetty Uppunda, taluk panchayat former member Umesh Shetty Kalgadde, Congress district spokesperson K Vikash Hegde, Byndoor police circle inspector Santhosh Kaikini and station inspector Nasir Hussain were also present.
Children were taught alphabets by a temple official from morning on Friday as part of Vijayadashami celebrations. Kadiru festival celebrations, Navannaprashana and Vijayotsava were held in the evening.