‘Panchami Theertham’ brings curtains down on Padmavati temple festival

Devotees in large numbers throng to witness ‘Panchami Theertham’ at the sacred tank of Tiruchanur Sri Padmavati Ammavari temple on Tuesday (November 25, 2025), which also brought curtains on the annual nine-day ‘Kartheeka Brahmotsavams’ celebrations at the shrine.

Every Brahmotsavam ends with ‘Chakra Snanam’, where the holy discus is immersed into the temple tank on the final day. Since the Tiruchanur event always falls on ‘Panchami’, the fifth day in a fortnight after full moon or new moon day, it is known as ‘Panchami Theertham’. According to mythology, the Goddess is believed to have appeared on a golden lotus in this tank.

A series of rituals conducted to the processional deity of Goddess Padmavati ended with the priests taking the ‘Sudarsana Chakra’ into the tank and immersing it at 12.10 p.m. The devotees, who were waiting in the waist-deep water, took a dip simultaneously amid chants of ‘Govinda Govinda’. In view of the belief that taking a holy dip alongside the deity washes away one’s sins, there was a large influx into the tank right from the morning.

Priests carry ‘Padi’, a holy set of offerings, on an elephant from Tirumala temple to Tiruchanur, at Sri Padmavati Ammavari temple on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit:
K.V. Poornachandra Kumar

Earlier, the ‘Saarey’ or Padi, a set of sacred offerings from Sri Venkateswara to His beloved spouse on Her appearance day, was brought all the way from Tirumala to Tiruchanur on an elephant and was handed over to the priests. The gift included a rare golden ‘Kamala Haram’ and an Addiga, weighing around 1.14 kg and worth ₹1.31 crore.

During the ‘Snapana Tirumanjanam’, the deities of the Goddess and the Chakra were given a celestial bath and adorned with saffron, pineapple, dry fruits, red and yellow rose petals and crowns made of tulasi garlands, which added to the grandeur of the event.

Apart from the senior and junior pontiffs, TTD chairman B.R. Naidu, Executive Officer Anil Kumar Singhal, Chandragiri MLA Pulivarthi Nani, Joint EO V. Veerabrahmam, Chief Vigilance and Security Officer K.V. Muralikrishna, Superintendent of Police L. Subbarayudu, TTD’s Chief Engineer M. Satyanarayana, Financial Advisor and Chief Accounts Officer O. Balaji and Deputy EO (Padmavati temple) Harindranath took part.

The TTD chairman congratulated the temple management for the arrangements. The sacred flag hoisted on the first day was brought down during the prolonged ‘Dhwajaavarohanam’ ritual in the evening, marking an end of the festival.