Mangaluru: Nearly 50,000 devotees descended on Dakshina Kannada district’s Kukke Subrahmanya temple, which is dedicated to the serpent god, on Sunday as the day was considered auspicious. This is said to be the highest footfall since Covid broke out more than two years ago. Before Covid, the temple used to see well over 1 lakh devotees on some big festival days in a year.

Sources said ‘Shashti’ and ‘Ashlesha’ nakshatras coincided on Sunday, and the weekend added to the rush at the temple. A nearly 1km queue of devotees was seen from the KSRTC bus terminal to the temple entrance.

Around 45,000 to 50,000 devotees have reached the temple town on Sunday. “Besides both Shashti and Ashlesha nakshatra falling on the same day, it is an important day for the temple as all the festival rituals end with the main deity being taken inside the sanctorum after pallakki utsava and bandi utsava. Nearly 2,300 devotees offered Ashlesha Bali pooja and about 45,000 received anna prasada.