Thousands perform rites to ancestors at Agni Theertham

On the new moon day on Wednesday, lakhs of devotees visited the Ramanathaswamy Temple at Rameswaram and offered Tharpanam, a special prayer for their ancestors and took a holy dip at the Agni Theertham. To control the crowd the temple management had closed three of the 22 theerthams, including Gayathri, Savithri and Saraswathi. 

This disappointed the devotees, who demanded the authorities to open all the theerthams to enable them to take a holy dip. dogs and cattle inside the temple. 

Meanwhile, a family from Andhra Pradesh, which had come to offer prayers at the Ramanathaswamy temple, lost its way in the forest near Rameswaram. 

They were rescued by the police with the help of the villagers, on Tuesday. After offering prayers at the temple, they had gone to Sambai village to visit the Sai Baba temple in the evening. But by the time the family reached Sambai, night arrived and they lost their way. 

While they were groping in the dark, one of them contacted the AP police. They, in turn, contacted the Superintendent of Police, Ramanathapuram. He alerted his team and the village panchayat head.

The villagers finally spotted their van close to midnight and the family was safely guided to Rameswaram.