Vijayawada, September 16, 2013: The roads leading to the Bhavanipuram bathing ghat wore a festive look with many Ganesh pandal organisers bringing idols in a colourful procession to immerse them in the Krishna on Sunday.

Many preferred to immerse the idols on Sunday, as it is the seventh day of the celebrations. More so, the ninth day fell on Tuesday, which is considered as inauspicious and not the appropriate day for immersion.

The idols were taken out in a procession with devotees dancing and singing in the lanes and by-lanes on their way to the river. The environs echoed with the beats of drummers.

The number of pandals has increased this year with each of them vying to organise the most deafening immersion procession by adding more drummers and louder music systems. With the number of idols involved and their competing sizes, idol immersion itself is a daunting task.

The immersion organisers pressed a crane and a punt into service for immersion. The idols, in varying heights, and some up to seven feet, were brought for immersion at the ghat.

The immersion in river symbolises the journey of the Lord towards his abode in ‘Kailasam’ while taking away with him the misfortunes of his devotees.

The Lord is worshipped for 10 days from ‘Bhadrapada Shudha Chaturthi’ to ‘Ananta Chaturdashi’. There is, however, no restriction on the number of days and it varies. The immersion ritual began on the third day. Some pandal organisers immersed the idols on the fifth day too.

  Numerous idols of Lord Vinayaka, which were installed at pandals for Vinayaka Chaviti, were immersed in the sea at Manginapudi on Sunday, amid a variety of cultural programmes.

Devotees from rural pockets close to the beach and the town filled the beach road with their vehicles carrying the idols. Teams of traditional drummers grabbed the attention of the public with deafening sounds while people from all walks of life followed them performing various forms of dance.

While a few in the processions threw and applied colour to one another many others sang bhajans and danced to the tune of the accompanying musical instruments. Classified as high-risk beach with strong currents where there were several drowning instances in the past, the Manginapudi beach was guarded by special police teams to avoid any untoward incident during the immersion on Sunday.

Devotees were allowed into the sea to perform the immersion till 6.30 p.m, according to the Beach Police Post staff.

Visitors and tourists witnessed a colourful procession with devotes praying and renting the air with calls of ‘Ganapathibappa Moria’. Despite the long distance from Machilipatnam, many Utsav Committees, comprising women and children, came in a procession and immersed the idols in the sea. The police allowed a few groups into deeper waters to immerse tall idols.

Source: The Hindu, September 16, 2013