Deity installation in Hyderabad By Prabhupada

Anandamaya Dasa: Srila Prabhupada came to Hyderabad on the 18th of April 1974. At that time the devotees of Hyderabad had built a temporary structure on the land belonging to the Donor Sri. G. Pullareddy. The donor G. Pullareddy had given us the backside, which is about 1,000 square yards. On the front side, that was not donated to ISKCON. But G. Pullareddy had allowed us to use this plot of land to build a temporary structure. This month of April 74 the structure had been completed. Deities of the Radha-Madanmohan had been bought from Jaipur. That was the beginning of the worship. So Srila Prabhupada came at that time to inaugurate the worship. There was also a pandal nearby where Srila Prabhupada gave lectures. I remember that when the curtain opened for the first time and to the public view, Srila Prabhupada was right in front of the Deities. He immediately said, “This is Radha-Madanmohan.” So, it was a revelation for us. The names of the Deities had been revealed by Srila Prabhupada immediately like that. So, there was aarti ceremony. Prabhupada made aarti to the Deities. So that was the inauguration. It was not a pakka installation, because later on in 1976 in August, the Deities were moved slightly behind about 30 yards away from that place. So, in 76 to place the final installation, but this was only a temporary installation, only for Radha-Madanmohan. The other Deities- Jagannatha, Baladeva, Subhadra, and Gaura-Nitai came later on in 1976.