The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department has received around ₹10 lakh as donations for anna dhanam to devotees at the Athi Varadar festival in Kancheepuram so far. On Thursday, the idol of Athi Varadar was turned from sayana kolam (lying down position) to nindra kolam (standing position) at the Sri Devarajaswamy Temple where the festival has been on since July 1. The idol of Athi Varadar was brought out from the Ananthasaras tank after 40 years and has been kept for darshan till August 17. Kancheepuram Collector P. Ponniah, who too visited the centre, said that so far over 42 lakh devotees had visited the Sri Devarajaswamy Temple for the Athi Varadar Vaibhavam. “Since we expect more devotees to visit the temple for the nindra kolam of Sri Varadar, we have deployed additional policemen.

Source: The Hindu August 01, 2019 19:50 UTC