Hyderabad: Thousands of devotees thronged the Bhagyalaxmi temple, adjacent to the Charminar, to offer prayers on the occasion of Diwali on Monday evening. The temple allowed people to have ‘darshan’ at the temple till 3 a.m and later closed the temple for the day due to a partial solar eclipse.
Devotees from across the Hyderabad visited the temple on Diwali to seek blessings of the deity. The temple, albeit unauthorised, and its committee as a tradition hands over a currency coin as a gift to the visitors.
Long queues were witnessed at the temple line, which stretched until Gulzar Houz and beyond. Local traders also put up banners to welcome the devotees. Free drinking water supply arrangements were made.
Devotees consider visiting the temple auspicious on Diwali festival. Since, last few years the crowd at the temple swelled on festival days and the temple is usually decorated grandly with flowers and special lights.
The police deployed Rapid Action Force and local civil police for maintaining law and order. The deployment will continue till Wednesday when the rush will decrease.
Diwali is observed on the 15th day of Kartik, the holiest month in the Hindu lunar calendar and it is believed that on this day Lord Rama (the seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu) returned from a 14-year-long exile during which he fought and won a battle against the demon king Ravan.
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