The city wore a festive look on Sunday as thousands of devotees mostly women thronged Mahankali Temples and offered prayers on the occasion of Bonalu.
The festival was celebrated with traditional pomp, gaiety and fervour amidst tight police security arrangements. The lanes of the city were crammed with processions of devotees and reverberated with folk songs. Serpentine queues were seen at almost all the Mahankali temples across the city.
The Lal Darwaza Mahankali Temple and the historic Akkanna Madanna Mahankali Temple, Hari Bowli in Shahalibanda and Golconda, witnessed a huge turnout.
Bonalu began early morning Sunday with a Mahabhishekam to Goddess Mahankali. A large number of devotees, especially women dressed in traditional attire offered carried ‘Bonam’ on their heads to temples and offered prayers to Goddess Mahankali.
On behalf of the State government, Home minister Nayini Narasimha Reddy presented Pattu Vastralu (silk clothes) to Goddess Mahakali at Lal Darwaza Mahankali Temple, while minister for Commercial Taxes T Srinivas Yadav presented Pattu Vastralu to the Goddess at Akkanna Madanna Mahankali Temple at Hari Bowli.
Union minister, Bandaru Dattatreya, deputy chief minister Mahmood Ali, Telangana Council Chairman, Swamy Goud, MPs, Kavitha and others offered prayers.
The 11-day festival will conclude on Monday with the oracle prediction, ie, Rangam at 12 noon, followed by a procession.
Source: The New Indian Express