Varanasi: Kashi plunged into Mahashivratri celebrations as devotees started pouring in from Saturday evening to begin the Panchkroshi Parikrama, amid chants of ‘Har Har Mahadev’.Meanwhile, Haldi rituals kicked off at KV temple and other spots. At former KV temple Mahant’s house in Tedhineem, hundreds gathered for the ceremony, chanting ‘Har-Har Mahadev’ and singing traditional wedding songs.Thousands of devotees from neighbouring districts, especially from rural belts, started thronging Manikarnika Ghat to begin the 88.5 km Panchkroshi Yatra. Officials were also taking stock of the routes of the traditional Shiv Barat to be taken out on Sunday evening.At Kashi Vishwanath temple, where festivities kicked off four days ago, preparations were in full swing for the 44-hour uninterrupted darshan as the sanctum sanctorum doors opened Sunday morning. Crowd management was all set, and police had traffic plans and diversions in place by Saturday evening.Barricades have been installed on key roads like Dashaswamedh-Godowlia-Bansphata and Maidagin-Chowk to manage the crowd. Devotees started gathering in the barricaded areas by Saturday night, eager to enter KV Dham as soon as the sanctum sanctorum opens post Mangla Aarti at 3:30 am Sunday.Kashi Vishwanath temple CEO Vishwa Bhushan Mishra said the sanctum doors will stay open for 44 hours straight till 11 pm Monday. He appealed to devotees to follow guidelines, like eating before queuing up, and avoiding electronics, mobiles, pens, and luggage.Apart from Police Commissioner Mohit Agrawal, divisional commissioner S Rajalingam, DM Satyendra Kumar, and the temple CEO, most senior officials of the Kashi zone monitored the arrangements on Saturday. Traffic restrictions on the roads leading to Maidagin and Godowlia crossing from Visheshwarganj, Piplani Katra, Lahurabir, Benia, Ramapura, Luxa, and Sonarpur inside the city area, and points to stop 4-wheelers from moving to these points, were made effective by late evening, while parking zones around the city were also operationalised.Equal focus was also on all other prominent temples of Lord Shiv, including Markandeya Mahadev temple at the Ganga-Gomati confluence at Kaithi, Shool Tankeshwar, Jageshwar, Mrityunjaya Mahadev, Gauri Kedareshwar, Onkaleshwar, and Tilbhandeshwar, as well as Panchkroshi route temples such as Kardameshwar and Rameshwar Mahadev temples. The Mahashivratri celebrations of Veershaiva followers also started gaining momentum at Jangambadi Mutt. On the inaugural day of the two-day celebration, the series of events started with flag hoisting by the mutt’s Mahants Jagadguru Chandrashekhar Shivacharya Mahaswami and Jagadguru Mallikarjun Shivacharya Mahaswami. This was followed by a Vedic debate between students and the felicitation of scholars, including Banaras Hindu University’s Prof Vindhyeshwari Prasad Mishra.
