Varanasi: An ocean of saffron swept through Varanasi on the first Monday of the holy month of Shrawan as over 5 lakh kanwariyas and devotees offered ‘Jalabhishek’ at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple by evening. Long before dawn, roads leading to the temple and Dashashwamedh Ghat were packed with barefoot pilgrims chanting “Har Har Mahadev” and “Bol Bum”, while authorities maintained elaborate security and crowd-management arrangements to facilitate one of the biggest annual religious gatherings.Before the sanctum sanctorum of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple was opened after the ‘mangla aarti’ around 4.30 am, divisional commissioner S Rajalingam and the temple’s CEO Vishwa Bhushan Mishra, along with other dignitaries, gathered at the Nandu Feria Gate and welcomed devotees by showering flower petals on them as they entered the temple amid chants of “Har Har Mahadev” and “Bol Bum” to offer ‘Jalabhishek’.The entire barricaded queuing area around Kashi Vishwanath Dham had been occupied by kanwariyas since Sunday evening, while thousands spent the night on the steps, platforms and anchored boats at Dashashwamedh and adjoining ghats along the Ganga. As devotees joined the queues before sunrise, security personnel activated zig-zag barricading at various points to regulate the crowd.The scale of the rush at all entry points, including Ganga Dwar on the riverfront, Dhundhiraj and Nandu Feria gates, was evident from the fact that within 90 minutes of the sanctum sanctorum opening for Jharokha Darshan and Jalabhishek through specially designed metallic channels, the number of devotees who reached the sanctum crossed 1 lakh.The CEO said that by 5 pm, over 5 lakh kanwariyas and other devotees had entered the temple and performed ‘Jalabhishek’. However, queues from the Maidagin, Dashashwamedh and Godowlia sides continued to remain several kilometres long.Commissioner of Police Mohit Agrawal and DM Satyendra Kumar continuously monitored arrangements at all entry points and were seen taking feedback on crowd management. Officials said the maximum influx of kanwariyas was from the Prayagraj side, while large numbers of saffron-clad devotees also arrived from Bihar, Chandauli, Ghazipur, Azamgarh, Jaunpur and Mirzapur routes. The inflow of pilgrims remained steady throughout the day.Live telecast of the rituals inside the sanctum sanctorum on giant LED screens installed at multiple locations helped devotees waiting in queues remain connected with the proceedings. For pilgrims moving through the zig-zag barricades after entering the Dham, German hangars and additional sheds were erected to protect them from rain, heat and sunlight. Authorities also arranged glucose, ORS solutions and drinking water. Medical facilities, along with lost-and-found counters, remained operational throughout the day under multi-layered security arrangements.As several ghats along the Ganga remained submerged, teams of the NDRF and the PAC’s flood relief company maintained extra vigil to prevent any untoward incident as devotees collected Gangajal for Jalabhishek at Shiv temples.Heavy crowds were also witnessed at other prominent temples, including Markandeya Mahadev at the Ganga-Gomati confluence in Kaithi, Sarangnath at Sarnath, Tilbhandeshwar, Gauri Kedareshwar, Omkareshwar, Jageshwar, Rameshwar, Shooltankeshwar, Kardameshwar and Mrityunjaya Mahadev.
