City temples mark Mahashivaratri with day-long pujas

 Devotees flocked the temples to watch special abhishekas, pujas, mantra jabas and night-long jagarane to mark the day-long Mahashivaratri celebrations in the city.

Most of the city temple trusts had organised special programmes like dance, music and plays to help devotees keep awake throughout the night and meditate on Lord Shiva.

Day-long celebrations took place at the Nagareshwara Swamy temple in Nagarathpete near Town Hall. The temple had also organised a special programme called 'Girijakalyana'   on Tuesday evening.

A photography exhibition by epigrapher Kengeri Chakrapani, showing 600 pictures of Shivalingas and idols of Shiva from across Karnataka, proved an irresistible lure for the devotees. "I travelled across the state to take photographs of Shivalingas and idols, which dates back to the 9th century," Chakrapani said.

"Lingas more than 500 years are the subject of 2,000 of the pictures. Unique among them was the Mukhalinga in Barangi in Soraba taluk of Shivamogga. In fact, there are 100 Shivalingas in Bengaluru that are 500 years old," he added.

Chakrapani had kept the exhibition open till late night to let more devotees catch a glimpse of the special lingas.

The RMV Foundation Shiva temple on Old Airport Road, housing the giant 65-feet Shiva idol in a meditative posture, had also attracted several devotees. The chief lure was the temple's museum with replicas of Shivalingas across the country.

Though  Shivaratri occurs every month before the new moon day, the one celebrated two days before the new moon in February, before the arrival of summer, is considered special and is marked as Mahashivaratri.