The divine water of the river Ganga is here to make the Mahashivaratri celebrations a really holy affair for Bangaloreans.

Starting at 9am on Sunday, Bangaloreans can get the theertha (a token offering of the holy water) at the city's 20 main Shiva temples. The Gangajal would be offered at over 1,500 Shiva temples across the state after Lord Shiva is given the ceremonial offering
(abhisheka) in the morning.

Two containers, carrying a total of 52,000 litres of Gangajal, collected from Laksman Jhula near Rishikesh, arrived at Chamarajpet on Sunday afternoon. A special pooja was offered by Muzrai minister Krishnaiah Setty to the tankers near the Sri Rameshwara Swamy temple.

Maxi-cabs loaded with 2,400 10-litre cans of the holy water left to all 175 taluks of the state. Muzrai department officials said that each taluk would get five cans of Gangajal.

However, officals monitoring the programme were doubtful if the Gangajal would suffice for Bangalore which has over 200 Shiva temples. "We have kept aside 20 cans, each of 10 litres, for Bangalore which would be distributed at main Shiva temples like Gavigangadhareshwara temple in Gavipuram," said a department official.

According to official calculations, the 200 litres of Gangajal reserved for the city would be sufficient only for 40,000 devotees.

However, the demand for Gangajal peaked on Sunday itself as hundreds of Bangaloreans thronged Chamarajpet with water bottles and containers to get a share from the tanker.

The two containers of 26,000 litres brought from Rishikesh were stationed at Chamarajpet.

Workers filling water cans to be sent to various parts of the state had a tough time as the public was desperate for the Gangajal.

Mohan Kumar, in charge of transporting the holy water, said that nearly 1,000 people had collected Ganga water from the tankers at Chamrajpet and workers could only watch helplessly.

When questioned about the shortage of Gangajal for a big city like Bangalore, he said that whatever remains of the Ganga water after distributing it to all taluks, would be passed on to other Shiva temples in the city.

"If sufficient quantity of water remains, we hope to distribute the same to all Shiva temples in the city," said Mohan Kumar, when contacted around 8 pm.

Department officials said that as many as 1,500 temples have been identified across the state for the distribution of the holy water.

Along with Gangajal, the minister has also arranged for the distribution calendars, brought out specially for the Shivarathri, to devotees. Over six lakh calendars would be distributed on Monday. (Rohith BR/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication)