Devotees throng Temples chanting ‘Jai Sri Ram’; Organisations distribute prasada and panaka at prominent areas, streets

Mysore/Mysuru: Usual splendour and fervour was attached to Ramanavami celebrations, with thousands of devotees thronging to various temples across the city this morning. Early in the morning, people started to queue up in front of temples, which were decked up for the festival, to offer special prayers.

Ramanavami is observed on the ninth day of Chaitra Navaratri to commemorate the birth of Lord Rama, the seventh avatar of Lord Vishnu.

Marking the occasion, special pujas, abhisheka, archane, homa and sahasranama parayana were held at all Rama Mandiras and several temples across the city.

Special pujas were also performed at Maruthi Temple in T.K. Layout, Kote Anjaneyaswamy Temple at Palace North, Sri Rama Mandira at Krishnamurthypuram, Sri Ramabhyudaya Sabha in Srirampet, Chikka Anjaneyaswamy Temple in Agrahara, Panchamukhi Anjaneyaswamy Temple near Old RMC, Suryanarayana Swamy Temple and Sri Rama Dhama in Udayagiri, Sathyanarayana Swamy Temples on Chamaraja Double Road, Hanuman Temple at Ganapathy Sachchidananda Ashram and at the Amrutheswara Temple premises on Dewan’s Road, several Rama Mandira and Sri Raghavendra Swamy Mutts across the city.

Many youth organisations, institutions, Vishwa Hindu Parishat (VHP) and Rashtriya Bajarang Dal members had erected shamianas at several junctions and on prominent roads in city — Ramanuja Road, Chamaraja Double Road, Narayana Shastry Road, Nazarbad, Fountain Circle, Saraswathipuram, Kuvempunagar and Teresian College Road etc. — where they performed puja to the portrait of Lord Rama.

Apart from this, they distributed ‘panaka’ (juice), ‘majjige’ (buttermilk) and ‘kosambari’ to the devotees which quenched their thirst in scorching summer heat.

Autorickshaw drivers had also installed pendals at auto stands and distributed ‘kosambari’ and ‘panaka’ to the passersby.

Ramanavami came as a big relief for people as several of them could beat the heat consuming buttermilk and ‘panaka.’

People from Muslim community were also seen distributing ‘panaka’ to devotees on Narayana Shastry Road.

Meanwhile, several organisations have also organised various cultural programmes including bhajans in the evening to mark the occasion.