Religious ecstasy marks ‘Ratha Saptami’ in Tirumala

Religious fervour marked the annual ‘Ratha Saptami’ celebrations at the hill temple of Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala on Sunday.

However, serious lapses in traffic management cast a shadow over the sacred spectacle.

The festival witnessed the processional deity, Lord Malayappa Swamy, taken around the temple precincts on seven vahanams — Suryaprabha, Chinna Sesha, Hanumantha, Garuda, Kalpavriksha, Sarvabhoopala, and Chandraprabha — in a seamless sequence from the pre-dawn hours till late night.

The festivities commenced at dawn with the ‘Suryaprabha vahanam’ and concluded in the night with ‘Chandraprabha vahanam’. 

Tens of thousands of devotees gathered at the South-West corner of the temple to witness the celestial first rays of the Sun touching the feet of the deity, lending the town a charged spiritual aura.

However, beyond the celebrations, pilgrims faced unprecedented hardship. As never before, heavy-handed policing and indiscriminate barricading at key junctions turned the hill town into a maze of congestion and confusion.

All arterial roads leading to the mada streets, through which the seven processions passed, were blocked for vehicular movement, forcing devotees walk long distances to reach a comfortable point to catch a glimpse of the vahanams. Those already in the galleries were also not permitted to move out of their places despite their repeated pleas.

Several of those, unfamiliar with Tirumala’s terrain, were compelled to traverse four to five kilometers to join the starting point of the darshan queue lines on the Outer Ring Road (ORR), enduring physical strain and uncertainty despite elaborate arrangements by the TTD.

The ORR itself witnessed chaos, with scores of vehicles parked haphazardly on both sides, bringing traffic to a grinding halt. Even those returning to their native destinations, were caught in prolonged snarls.

Meanwhile, the officials ensured uninterrupted supply of free food packets, drinking water and beverages to the devotees who remained in the galleries till the conclusion of the festivities.