Chamundi hills bans entry of devotees on Aashada Fridays, Vardanthi Utsav

Mysuru: Every year more than a lakh devotees including VIPs, those from other States flooded Chamundeswari temple atop Chamundi hills in Mysuru for Aashaada Fridays, and Vardanthi Utsav.

And this year for the first time due to Covid 19 Mysuru district administration has banned entry of people to Chamundi hills itself on all Aashaada Fridays and the subsequent Saturdays and Sundays, and even for Vardanthi Utsav of Goddess. And they have restricted religious activities to only temple priests for all these special occasions.

Mysuru DC Mr Abhiram G Shankar told Deccan Chronicle that an unanimous decision in this regard was taken in a meeting led by Mysuru district minister Mr S T Somashekar, Mysuru Kodagu MP Pratap Simha, local MLAs and temple administrative board, at Chamundi hills on Tuesday.

Fridays of Aashaada (fourth month of Hindu calendar) this year will be on 26 of this month, 3, 10 and 17 of July. And Chamundi Vardanthi Utsav or Janmothsav (birth anniversary of Goddess Chamundeswari) will be on 13 July. Undeterred by Covid fear after the Chamundeswari temple was opened on 8 of this month, over 8000 devotees have thronged temple last Friday, over 2000 on Tuesday, over 1000 people are thronging per day on all remaining days. So in order to avoid huge crowd, in view of health of people, in Covid situation, the decision in this regard has been taken, according to Muzrai Tahsiladar Mr Yathiraj.

“The month of Aashaada is auspicious and it is mentioned in the Skanda purana that it should be devoted to perform special poojas for the Goddess of Power (Shakthi), especially Durga and Lakshmi, so that one’s wishes are fulfilled. So devotees from across the Country including VIPs especially politicians thronged Chamundeswari temple atop Chamundi hills on all Aashaada Fridays every year,” said, Chamundeswari temple chief priest Dr Shashishekar Dixit.

Every year, Chamundeswari temple used to be specially decorated with specific themes with fruits and flowers. And unable to control the vehicles, Mysuru city police used to ban private vehicles to Chamundi hills on Aashaada Fridays, and KSRTC used to arrange atleast 100 special buses for devotees. And those buses made not less than over 1000 trips on each Aashaada Friday. And devotees used to queue up from as early as 2.30am itself, though devotees were allowed for darshan from 5.30am and 10.30pm.