8TH DAY OF SRI KALYANA VENKATESWARA SWAMY TEMPLE BRAHMOTSAVAM- RATHOTSAVAM

Srinivasa Mangapuram, 26 February 2014: On the penultimate day of  Sri Kalyana Venkateswara Swamy Brahmotsavam in Srinivasa Mangapuram near Tirupati, on the eighth day,  the Sri Kalyana Venkateswara Swamy along with His consorts were seated on a high pedestal throne and taken in a procession around the four mada streets in a 30 tonne wooden chariot.

The Rathotsavam festival is a highly emotional event known for the flow of bhakti sangeet, keertans, bhajans and full pitched rendering by the devotees who accompany the procession of the deity. The Rathotsavam is ignificant for its salient features. It is dragged by devotees and temple staff with the help of secure four inch thick jute ropes all along the thiru mada streets surrounding the temple shrine. The Rathotsavam has a special spiritual message embedded in the Kathopanishad which compared it to blending of the soul with the body. The saint poet Annamacharya says that divine being that was an embodiment of all living things, was thus dragging his own chariot.

Joint Executive Officer Sri Pola Bhaskar, Chief Engineer Sri Chandrasekhar Reddy, DyEO(Local Temples) Sri Sridhar, Sri Sudhakar Rao, Supdt Engg,  AEO Sri Dhananjeyulu, Sri K.S.Narayana Chary, Archaka, Temple staff and  large number of devotees took part.

ISSUED BY THE PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER, TTDs TIRUPATI