Wanderlust Tales : Banashankari amma, Bangalore

The Banashankari Amma Temple is among the highly famous temples in Bangalore. People who visit the temple show strong faith and belief to the Goddess Banashankai who resides in the temple.

BANASHANKARI AMMA:

Lying just across the busy streets of Banashankari – the temple has been renovated recently and you will find numerous vendors selling the puja items, flowers, and lemons.

The specialty of the temple is that devotees believe in offering prayer during the Rahukalam – which is otherwise considered an inauspicious time for worship.

OFFERINGS:

The mode of offering your prayer is slightly different here – there are special days Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays where the devotees flock in great number.

They offer Diya’s to Amma, in lemons.The lemon is sliced into half, the juice is extracted and then the lemon in turned upside down to form a base for the Diya – such that the outer cover would now hold the ghee or oil. Now you can dip your bati in it. It is advisable to add a pinch of haldi, kumkum on the sides of the lemon. You must add camphor/kappor to the open ends of the bati, for it to light up with ease.

The queue during the Rahukalam is immense – people stand in queues with patience to offer their prayer to Amma. There is token for quick darshan available. 

You can have a darshan from outside too without standing in the long queues – for those who don’t want to perform puja with their diyas inside. 

Please bear caution with your clothing and hair – since people carry the lighted up diyas all around – it can cause major goof ups.

There is a chappal stand, which charges Rs.2/- per pair. 

They have designated area for preparing the lemon diyas. 

You will see thousands of women in the premises preparing the diyas.

They do offer prasadam too.

Once the prayer is done – you can put your diyas in a diya stand that they have made. Do make sure to carry a spoon which will help to place the Diya’s on the stand – they get pretty heated up.

Pictures:

Cheers to life!!

~Journey of a thousand miles begin with a single step!

P.S. All the above photos have been clicked by me.