10 lk pilgrims to visit Dharbaranyeswarar temple

Chennai, Aug 4: More than ten lakh pilgrims are expected to throng the Dharbaranyeswarar temple at Thirunnallaru in Karaikal, about 275 km from here, on the occasion of ''Sani Peyarchi'' festival tomorrow.

Temple sources told a the souces correspondent that all arrangements were made to cope up with the huge rush of devotees, who would visit the temple town from every nook and corner of the country , including abroad.

The Sanipeyarchi festival falls once in 30 months and the temple, the abode of Lord Saneeswarar (Saturn), was located in Karaikal in the Union Territory of Puducherry.

The temple used to draw thousands of pilgrims every Saturday.

The legend has it, a holy dip in the sacred temple tank of 'Nala Theertham' would wipe out the evil effects of Saturn, one of the nine planets and it transits from Zodiac sign ''Cancer'' to ''Leo'' around 1200 pm tomorrow.

''During the last festival, we had about seven to eight lakh devotees. It's on the increase every time. This year we are expecting more than ten lakh devotees'', a temple official said.

All steps were taken to regulate the crowd, which had started pouring since yesterday. A majority of the hotels had already been booked full.

To facilitate hassle-free darshan, the temple administration had issued Rs 600 and Rs 50 special tickets for devotees. About five people would be allowed for darshan in Rs 600 ticket which comes with temple honours. Apart from this there would also be free darshan.

Special abhishekams would be performed and Lord Sani, would be taken around the temple in 'Golden Crow' (crow is the celestial vehicle for Lord Sani) tomorrow.

More than 3,000 police personnel would be deployed for security duty.

For the first time, the entire Sani Peyarchchi rituals would be telecast live to enable people all over the world to witness the festival.

The Pududcherry and Tamil Nadu governments would operate special buses for the benefit of pilgrims, official sources said and added that basic amenities like drinking water and sanitation would be provided to the pilgrims.

UNI