Visakhapatnam: Scores of devotees from various parts of Andhra Pradesh, southern Odisha and Chhattisgarh thronged Arasavalli Suryanarayana temple in Srikakulam town, on Tuesday, to attend the annual Rathasaptami festival. The devotees were waiting in queue to offer prayers to sun god on the occasion of Surya Jayanthi which is the birthday of the presiding deity. On this day, the primordial source of energy for all forms of life, changes direction from southeast to northeast.

The devotees started visiting temple premises from Monday night itself, to take part in Ksheerabhisekham ritual, which began at around 12.15 am on Tuesday. For a few hours, the devotees had the glimpses of deity’s ‘nijaroopa darshanam’ (original form), and later Lord was decorated with finery and flowers.

On the other, Union minister for civil aviation K. Ramamohan Naidu, who performed puja along with his family members, thanked Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu for declaring the event as state festival.

Principal secretary of endowments department,Vinay Chand, presented Pattu Vastrams (silk robes) to the temple on behalf of the state government. The Andhra Pradesh government has declared Rathasaptami as three-day state festival. Local MLAs and other public representatives attended Ksheerabhisekham ritual, which was performed by chief priest Ippili Shankar Sarma.

Srikakulam collector Swapnil Dinakar Pundkar, SP K.V. Maheswar Reddy and other officials were monitoring the arrangements at the venue. The devotees expressed satisfaction over the arrangements.