Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Oct 19: A large number of devotees made a beeline for various temples in coastal Karnataka on Sunday October 18 to seek the blessings of the deities on the auspicious occasion of Navaratri. Temples in the city, as well as in Kateel, Polali, and Kollur saw huge crowds as Goddess Durga is worshipped mainly during this festival and it is believed that the Goddess is in benevolent mood during the Navaratri.

Being the first Sunday of Navaratri, people went to temples and joined the queues. As per the district administration instructions, temple managements had made suitable arrangements to allow a hundred devotees into the premises at a time. The devotees too cooperated with the managements by wearing face masks and maintaining social distance.

Polali temple witnessed inflow of devotees right from the morning to night. Mangaladevi temple in the city was another temple which witnessed large number of people. In Kollur too use of sanitisers, wearing of masks and maintaining social distance were enforced.

A release by the Kateel temple management said that the distribution of 'Shesha Vastra', clothes which were once used to adorn the deity, to women devotees on Lalita Panchami day has been cancelled due to coronavirus concerns. At the same time, the 'Aksharabhyasa (symbolic initiation to education) which used to be held on Vijaya Dashami day too has been cancelled. The temple also stated that devotees cannot have the Darshan of the Goddess between 3 and 5 pm every day during the Navaratri festival as the idol of the goddess has to be decorated in a special way.

This time, parking arrangement was managed properly and therefore traffic blocks were relatively less.