Andhra temple administration adorns deity with Rs.2.5 crores worth of cash and gold

The administrators of a 130-year-old temple in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam District has decorated a deity of the Goddess Vasavi Kanyaka Parameswari with both Indian and foreign currency notes and gold ornaments worth Rs.2.5 crores on the occasion of the nine-day festival of Navratri.

The decoration at the Sri Kanyakaparameswari Devasthanam Temple in Visakhapatnam City was done to mark the 'Sri Mahalakshmi Avatram' of the goddess during the Navratri celebrations.

On Ashtami, the eighth day of Navratri, the goddess is worshipped as Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth.

During the nine-day-long Navratri festival, devote Hindus worship the Goddess Durga in all of her nine manifestations. Navratri began on October 13 and concludes today. It is marked by celebrations involving prayer, music and dance by both men and women.

Goddess Durga represents the feminine force which guides and destroys all evil from earth. The festival is also about the annual visit of the goddess with her children to her ancestral home on earth.

For the last 15 years, the idol of Goddess Vasavi Kanyaka Parameswari is decorated daily in different forms of Goddess Durga.

The Sri Kanyakaparameswari Devasthanam temple is dedicated to Sri Vasavi Kanyaka Parameshwari, the goddess or "kula devatha" of the Arya Vysya community as mentioned in the Vasavi Puranamulu written in Telugu during the 10th century A.D. The most famous temple of this goddess is located at Penugonda,West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh.

K. Ramakrishnan, the president of the temple's administrative wing, said, "We started with only one 1,00,000 (rupees) first and after that we are continuing 1,00,000; 200,000; 3,00,000; 4,00,000 and now yesterday we decorated Mahalaxmi avatharam with money and gold, 2.5 crore (rupees 25 million) cash and one crore (rupees 10 million) worth of gold."

The Indian currency was in the denominations of rupee 1 to rupees 1,000

The Navratri festival culminates on the tenth day, known as Dussehra, which marks victory of good over evil.