The premises of one of the most revered and famous Shiva temples in the world reverberated with chants of Jai Shambho, Jai Bhole Nath‚ Bam Bam Bhole and hymns as the pilgrims started congregating before the dawn.
The Pashupati Area Development Trust said that more than one million devotees visited the temple to mark the festival.
The temple premises was decked up with lights and fancy gates. The holy site enjoyed round-the-clock illumination as Nepal Electricity Authority declared it a load-shedding free zone until Thursday.
Taranath Subedi, PADT treasurer, said thousands of devotees from India‚ Malaysia‚ Singapore and Indonesia also visited the holy shrine on one of the biggest annual celebrations. Indian devotees topped the foreign pilgrims with a rough calculation of 150,000. All the four gates of the temple were opened for devotees since 3am.
Officials and volunteers had made arrangements for four general queues — starting from Gaushala, Tilganga, Jaya Bageshwori and Mitrapark for devotees — to make their way to the temple.
Paying devotees were provided entrance from Bhuwaneshwori.
The overall management of the PADT evoked mixed reactions. Though the officials said arrangements were made in such a way that devotees will be able to pay homage to the deity within half an hour of standing in a queue, some said it took more than two hours just to reach the temple premises.
Mahalaxmi Basnet, 56, of Koteshwor said the queues were not maintained well. It took me hours to reach the temple, said Basnet. Volunteers, however, were helping the elderly differently-abled persons to reach the temple without standing in queues.
Sadhus and naga babas, who have been camping around the temple, were the centre of attraction, especially for youngsters and foreign tourists who were in search of an opportunity get marijuana from them and pose for photographs with them.
More than 5,000 security personnel were deployed on the temple premises to prevent any untoward incident.
