more-inFun and frolic pervaded the environs of Parvetu Mandapam on Tuesday where the priests observed the traditional mock hunting festival. The hunting safari was organised in connection with Kanuma festival. The processional deity of Lord Malayappa dressed in the robes of a royal hunter and accoutred with his celestial panchayudhas such as Gada, Kadga, Bana, Sankhu and Chakra was taken out in a procession to the venue — parvetu mandapam — situated about two km amid the thick Tirumala forests. A big hitAfter the completion of the religious formalities, the priests enacted the mock hunting festival sending thousands of onlookers into peels of laughter. The vahanam bearers carrying the Lord mounted atop a golden palanquin trailed behind the temple priest who ran ahead holding a silver spear and symbolically hunted down a couple of deer kept tied in the nearby bush.

Source: The Hindu January 16, 2018 18:56 UTC