Published: 03rd May 2014

More than 75,000 devotees had nija rupa darshan of Sri Varahalakshmi Nrusimha Swamy in Simhachalam Friday. The revenue, police and endowment officials made elaborate arrangements for the annual festival wherein a team of blindfolded priests removed the sandal paste of the idol of the presiding deity, after observing two-hour-long special rituals and customs.

They offered special puja to the Lord and invited devasthanam hereditary chairman Pusapati Anandagajapathi Raju to have the first darshan. Anandagajapathi Raju was accompanied by Vijayanagara Samsthanam family members. The protocol VIPs and devotees had the nija rupa darshan later.

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam officer on special duty Seshadri, as per customs, offered silk clothes to the presiding deity. From the state government’s end, endowments commissioner Muktheswara Rao offered the silk clothes to Simhadri Appanna. The temple management cancelled all the VIP passes and gave priority to devotees this year. They, however, allowed VVIPs who bought `1,000 tickets to have break darshan, in the morning and in the evening. Devotees from across Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal thronged the temple and waited in queue lines since the wee hours of Thursday to have nija rupa darshan of the Lord.

Temple executive officer K Ramachandra Mohan supervised the arrangements. The RTC operated special bus services from various places across the state to Simhachalam. Several spiritual and service-oriented organisations like Satya Sai, ISKCON, NSS and Scout volunteers served the devotees.