On the occasion of Mahalaya Amavasai, thousands of pilgrims took a holy dip in Agni Theertham sea at Rameswaram. They performed various rituals or their ancestors, and worshipped at the Sri Ramanathaswamy Temple here on Saturday.

It is customary for thousands of devotees to visit the Ramanathaswamy Temple in Rameswaram on the new moon days of the Tamil months of Adi, Thai, and Purattasi, as well as on monthly Amavasai days, to take a holy dip in the Agni Theertham sea and perform ‘thithi tarpanam’ for their departed ancestors.

In this connection, thousands of devotees arrived in Rameswaram since the early hours for Mahalaya Amavasai. Devotees took a holy dip in Agni Theertham sea and performed sankalpam, thithi, and tarpanam for the peace of the souls of their departed ancestors.

They offered pinda, godanam (donation of a cow), vastra danam (donation of clothes), and anna danam (donation of food) as part of the pithru karma rituals and worshipped. Later, they bathed in the 22 holy sacred wells (theerthams) inside the Sri Ramanathaswamy Temple, waited in long queues, and had darshan of Lord Ramanathaswamy and Goddess Parvathavartini.

As hundreds of cars, buses, and tourist vehicles arrived in Rameswaram, there was traffic congestion. As thousands of devotees had gathered at one place, crowd management was also tough.

Consequently, devotees had to wait for two to three hours to have darshan of the deity. To control the crowd and for enhanced security, more than 700 police personnel were engaged in security duty.

To prevent pilgrims going for a holy dip in the sea from venturing into deep waters, marine police patrolled the shoreline in patrol boats. Further, special government buses were operated to Rameswaram from various cities, including Ramanathapuram, Madurai, and Tiruchi.