Hasanamba temple opens; darshan available for 12 days this year

The annual Hasanamba festival commenced on Thursday and, as per the tradition, the doors of the temple’s sanctum sanctorum were opened at 12:12 pm.

This year, the temple will be open for 15 days—until October 27. However, public darshan of the resident deity, Goddess Amba or Shakti, will only be allowed for 12 days. There was no darshan on Thursday, the first day of the festival; darshans will be closed on October 25, day of the solar eclipse and October 27, which is the last day of the annual festival.

According to sources, devotees can have “darshan” of the goddess on any of the other 12 days. The Hasanamba Jatra Mahotsava begins on the first Thursday of the Kannada calendar’s month of Ashweeja. Lakhs of people are expected to visit the temple this year, as the festivities were scaled down in the past two years due to Covid-19 protocols and restrictions in place.

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The rituals related to the opening of the temple commenced on the premises in the morning. As per the tradition, Narasimharaja Urs, a member from the Talwar community, felled the plantain tree, after which the temple doors were opened.

It is believed that the lamp that was lit last year keeps burning when the temple doors are opened after a year. The ‘naivedya’ offered to the goddess is fresh and also the flowers adorning the deity.

Lakhs of people visit the temple that is opened only once in a year around Deepavali festival.

This year, the doors of the sanctum sanctorum were opened in the presence of District in-charge Minister K Gopalaiah, MLA Preetham J Gowda, Deputy Commissioner M S Archana, Hasanamba temple administrator B A Jagadish, Superintendent of Police Hariram Shankar, Dy SP Nandini and other dignitaries.