Subrahmanya: Kukke Subrahmanya Temple, the richest temple of Karnataka is gearing up to hold Champa Shashti from November 26 to December 11 and a preliminary meet was organised on Monday to make sure that the event is hosted differently this time.

During the annual temple fair of Champa Shashti, the controversial ‘made snana’ is brought back into limelight. Made Snana is a ritual where those who have vowed to perform it voluntarily roll over the partaken food of the Brahmin classes inside the temple premises. However, a section of people who claim that the tribals, specifically the Malekudiyas are forced to perform the ritual have moved to court over the same. While Made Snana is still mired in controversy, yet another kind of ritual performed by devotees here is ‘Beedi Made Snana’, where the devotees roll over from river Kumaradhara to temple to complete their vows. While so far, the devotees had been rolling over the bitumen surfaced road from the bathing point till the temple, the authorities this year have made arrangements for the devotees to perform the same on a stretch of mud road.

The Beedi Made Snana firstly used to be perilous to the devotees because there were all chances of them being run over by vehicles plying on the same road. Further, performing the ritual on the bitumen surfaced road was all the more difficult. Special arrangements this year will help the devotees in a big way.

Further, the temple committee has decided to have laser show this year, instead of cracker show as the latter is often imposed with several guidelines by the district administration.

Lakshadeepothsava, special food arrangements too are in the pipeline, said temple authorities.