Guntur, 12th January 2014:  

Devotees standing in queue to have darshan of the presiding deity at Sri Lakshminarasimha Kshetram at Mangalagiri in Guntur district on Saturday.

Thousands of devotees performed special pujas and had darshan of Sri Lakshminarasimha Swamy at Sri Lakshminarasimha Kshetram on the occasion of ‘Vaikunta Ekadasi’ on Saturday.

Heavy rush was seen since a day before the festival, and devotees from Guntur, Krishna, Khammam, East and West Godavari, and other districts thronged the temple. Serpentine queues were seen at the temple from Friday midnight.

Elaborate arrangements

The Endowments Department made elaborate arrangements for the pilgrims. Police arranged bandobust to prevent any untoward incidents during the festival.

Temple priests offered ‘teertham’ from a golden ‘sanku’ to devotees and distributed ‘prasadam’.

The deities were decorated in different ‘alankarams’ and the temple managements performed ‘gramotsavams’ at Narsaraopet and other places.

Devotees performed special pujas at Shiva kshetrams, Sri Venkateswara Swamy and Lakshminarasimha Swamy temples at Guntur, Bapatla, Tenali, Sattenapalli, and Narsaraopet areas in the district.