Mysuru:  Braving morning chill, thousands of devotees thronged Subramanya Swamy temple at Siddalingapura on the Mysuru-Bengaluru Highway this morning to pay their obeisance to the deity on account of Subramanya Shashti Jatra.

Special prayers and rituals began at the temple as early as 12.30 am with a team of priests led by head priest   M.V. Subramanya.

They performed rituals such as Sankalpa, Rudrabhisheka, Ksheerabhisheka, Naivedya and Mahamangalarathi.

After the completion of rituals, devotees, standing in queues that ran up to half a kilometre, were allowed darshan of the deity at 3 am.

For the benefit of devotees, authorities had introduced a Rs. 25 ticket for special darshan.

The temple was magnificently decorated with a variety of flowers. A large number of devotees were seen offering milk and other puja materials on snake mounds in the vicinity of the temple while some were seen offering special Naivedya made from urad dal to the Lord.

Many devotees believe that offering milk on this auspicious day relieve them of any Sarpa Dosha. Sensing an opportunity to make a quick buck, a few snake charmers had camped near the temple to attract devotees.

But soon, Forest Department officials and former Corporator Snake Shyam asked them to leave the place and they did.

A big number of make-shift petty shops selling a variety of puja materials, food items etc., had come up on either side of the road. The Mysuru City Police had made elaborate security arrangements to control the huge crowd with Mounted Police too pressed into service, perhaps for the first time. The Police were seen making repeated announcements asking devotees to be wary of pick-pocketers and other thieves and keep an eye on children accompanying them. The devotees are allowed darshan of the deity till today midnight.

Traffic diversion: City Police have diverted traffic on Mysuru-Bengaluru Highway from last midnight till midnight of today. Vehicles plying from city to Bengaluru had to take a diversion towards left at Columbia Asia Hospital Junction to reach Royal Inn junction on KRS Road, take right and proceed on KRS Road to reach Pump House and then pass through Palahalli to touch the Mysuru-Bengaluru Highway near Paschimavaahini, while KSRTC buses leaving the Sub-Urban Bus Stand towards Bengaluru were asked to  pass through Male Mahadeshwara Road and Bannur Road.

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