Hyderabad, July 20: Bonalu was celebrated in the Old City on Sunday with traditional fervour and gaiety amidst tight security. Long queues were seen almost at all the decked up Mahankali temples across the city. The Lal Darwaza Mahankali Temple and the historic Akkanna Madanna Mahankali temple in Shah Ali Banda, the main centre of the Bonalu festivities in the Old City, witnessed a huge turnout, including ministers, political leaders and film stars.
Thousands of devotees began thronging the temples from the morning itself and offered prayers. Women dressed in traditional attire flocked with bonam containing cooked rice, jaggery, curd neem leaves in steel and clay pots on their heads to offer it to the Goddess. Potharajus danced to teen maar drumbeats that added zing to festivities. High security was in place at all the major Mahankali temples. Devotees before being allowed inside, were asked to pass through metal detectors and they were checked by police officials.
At some temples in Old City, committee members got into arguments with the police for their ‘overzealous’ security measures.
Endowments Minister Gade Venkat Reddy, Backward Classes Minister Mukesh Goud, MPs K Keshava Rao, Madhu Yashki Goud and Anjan Kumar Yadav, BJP State president Bandaru Dattatreya PRP leader T Devender Goud and A Narendra, T Srinivas Yadav, Teegala Krishna Reddy, C Krishna Yadav, TD leader Roja participated in the festivities and offered prayers at different Mahankali temples of the Old City.
GHMC Commissioner S P Singh, City Police Commissioner Prasada Rao and other senior police officials also offered prayers.
As the day advanced, the decibel levels of the festivities rose. Streets reverberated with folk songs, including the decade-old favourite Mayadari Maisammo Maisamma.
The festival will conclude on Monday with the oracle prediction, Rangam, followed by a combined procession of a caparisoned elephant, carrying ‘Ghatam’ of the Goddess Mahankali. The procession will pass through the main thoroughfares of Shalibanda, Charminar and Nayapul, where the ghatam will be immersed in the Musi in the evening.
The temples that will participate in the procession are Sri Akkanna Madanna Mahankali Mandir, Haribowli, Mateshwari Mutyalamna Temple, Bela, Bangaru Maisamma Temple, Shalibanda, Nalla Pochamma and Mahankali Temple, Muradmahal, Bangaru Maisamma Temple, Sultanshahi and Mahankali temples of Gowlipura, Lal Darwaza, Miralam Mandi and KotLa Alizah.
Apart from the Old City, Bonalu was celebrated at different Mahankali temples located at Balkampet, Ameerpet, Punjagutta, Somajiguda, Khairatabad, M S Maktha, Nampally, Sultan Bazar, Koti, Begum Bazar, Basheerbagh, Yousufguda, Sanathnagar, Jubilee Hills, Mehdipatnam, Masab Tank, Toli Chowki, Golconda, Langer House, Karwan, Mangalhat and Dhoolpet.
–Agencies–