Annapurna temple’s 9-day Kumbhabhishekam begins

Varanasi: With the arrival of Sringeri Shankaracharya's successor designate, Swami Vidhushekhar Bharti, the nine-day Kumbhabhishekam of Annapurna Temple started on Friday evening. The seer received a grand welcome upon his arrival, with a grand procession taking him to Shringeru Math's Mahmoorganj campus.On Saturday, the series of events began with an urn procession carried out by women devotees. The women reached Dashashwamedh with urns, including five silver urns, to fetch water from the holy Ganga amidst the blowing of conch shells, shehnai recitals, and chanting of the goddess. Annapurna Temple's Mahant Shankar Puri and Subhash Puri performed the rituals of Ganga Puja, worshipping the river Ganga before the consecration of new idols amidst the chanting of mantras by 101 priests. Later, the mahant offered milk and chunari to goddess Ganga, followed by the departure of the urn procession to Annapurna Temple via the Dhundhiraj Ganesh entry point.Upon reaching the temple, the rituals of Kumkumarchan started with the presentation of one of the silver urns filled with Gangajal to the Shankaracharya by the Mahant. He participated in the Kumkumarchan, performed a formal worship of the Goddess, and sat on a silver throne amidst chants of Mahadev in the temple courtyard. In the presence of the Shringeri seer, who spent 80 minutes there to supervise the rituals, including chanting of the Ganapati mantra by Vedic priests, a havan was performed with 12,000 modaks. Important attendees included professor Ramnarayan Dwivedi, Chella Subba Rao, Pt Visheshwar Shastri Dravid, professor Rajaram Shukla, Anil Narayan Kinjwadekar, Chandramouli Upadhyay, Brijbhushan Ojha, Chella Jagannath Prasad, K Venkat Raman, VS Mani, KV Narayanan, and Shadanand Pathak.Varanasi: With the arrival of Sringeri Shankaracharya's successor designate, Swami Vidhushekhar Bharti, the nine-day Kumbhabhishekam of Annapurna Temple started on Friday evening. The seer received a grand welcome upon his arrival, with a grand procession taking him to Shringeru Math's Mahmoorganj campus.On Saturday, the series of events began with an urn procession carried out by women devotees. The women reached Dashashwamedh with urns, including five silver urns, to fetch water from the holy Ganga amidst the blowing of conch shells, shehnai recitals, and chanting of the goddess. Annapurna Temple's Mahant Shankar Puri and Subhash Puri performed the rituals of Ganga Puja, worshipping the river Ganga before the consecration of new idols amidst the chanting of mantras by 101 priests. Later, the mahant offered milk and chunari to goddess Ganga, followed by the departure of the urn procession to Annapurna Temple via the Dhundhiraj Ganesh entry point.Upon reaching the temple, the rituals of Kumkumarchan started with the presentation of one of the silver urns filled with Gangajal to the Shankaracharya by the Mahant. He participated in the Kumkumarchan, performed a formal worship of the Goddess, and sat on a silver throne amidst chants of Mahadev in the temple courtyard. In the presence of the Shringeri seer, who spent 80 minutes there to supervise the rituals, including chanting of the Ganapati mantra by Vedic priests, a havan was performed with 12,000 modaks. Important attendees included professor Ramnarayan Dwivedi, Chella Subba Rao, Pt Visheshwar Shastri Dravid, professor Rajaram Shukla, Anil Narayan Kinjwadekar, Chandramouli Upadhyay, Brijbhushan Ojha, Chella Jagannath Prasad, K Venkat Raman, VS Mani, KV Narayanan, and Shadanand Pathak.