The three-day Maha Sivaratri Jatara at Sri Raja Rajeshwara Swamy Devasthanam in Vemulawada concluded on Wednesday with the devotees offering the traditional ‘Bonalu’ to the presiding deities at the adjacent Baddi Pochamma temple.
Annual ritual
It is a ritual for the devotees visiting the shrine during Maha Sivaratri festival to offer bonalu to Baddi Pochamma (Goddess Mahakali) after Sivaratri festival to make their pilgrimage complete. The devotees prepare bonalu with the rice mixed with jaggery and turmeric in a pot or other copper utensils and paint them with turmeric and place neem leaves and also light a lamp. Later, the devotees carry them on their head and offer the same at the Baddi Pochamma temple. On Wednesday, the devotees formed serpentine queues carrying bonalu at this shrine. Several thousands of devotees who had attended the three-day Jatara started leaving the temple shrine along with their belongings.
In the meantime, the Devasthanam had earned whopping revenue through sale of various puja tickets and prasadams during the jatara.
