Ashada Sare Festival Draws Huge Crowds to Kanaka Durga Temple
Over 65,000 devotees visit Kanaka Durga temple
VIJAYAWADA: A massive influx of devotees, particularly women participating in the annual Ashada Sare festival, led to heavy crowds at the Kanaka Durga temple atop Indrakeeladri in Vijayawada on Sunday, prompting the temple administration to enforce extensive crowd-management measures.
The weekend holiday, coinciding with the fifth day of the Ashada Sare celebrations, resulted in an unprecedented turnout from early morning. Devotees reached the temple through the Ghat Road and Kanaka Durga Nagar routes. Officials said around 65,000 devotees had darshan of the presiding deity by 3 pm.
To ease congestion, the temple administration suspended Antaralaya darshan from 9 am and cancelled VIP darshan between 9 am and 3 pm. From 10 am until the afternoon, all paid darshan categories were withdrawn and converted into free darshan queues, with all entry gates opened to reduce waiting time.
Temple executive officer V.K. Seena Naik supervised the arrangements, inspecting queue lines, battery-operated vehicle services, the protocol office, the main temple and the Mahamandapam. The entire temple staff was deployed to manage queues and provide essential services.
With high temperatures adding to devotees' discomfort, the temple supplied chilled drinking water through mobile water dispensers to those waiting in queues. Free prasadam and annaprasadam were distributed throughout the day.
The Ashada Sare festival witnessed an overwhelming response from women devotees, who offered turmeric, kumkum, bangles, sarees and new clothes to Goddess Kanaka Durga. By 3 pm, 57 organised Sare groups, comprising 23,916 devotees, had offered Sare to the deity. Women arrived from various districts of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and neighbouring states.
The temple earmarked the Bhavani Anugraha Darshan queue exclusively for Sare devotees, while regulating entry through other queues based on the crowd situation. A digital coordination system was also introduced to enable instant transmission of registration details from Kanaka Durga Nagar to the hilltop scanning point, helping officials manage queues more efficiently.
Temple Trust Board chairman Borra Radhakrishna, board members, senior temple officials and city police, led by DCP G. Ramakrishna and ACP Durga Rao, monitored the arrangements to ensure the smooth movement of devotees.
