Twelve members of two families assembled at Thotapalle village on the banks of Nagavali for a 'darshan' of Lord Venkateswara Swami at a temple on the auspicious occasion of 'Vaikunta Dwadasi'.
After the darshan, one of them V Prasada Rao (35) went inside the river to take a holy dip. He suddenly slipped and went deep inside the river and started drowning, they said.
Three other members of his family, V Srinivasa Rao (42), V Pavan Kumar ((15) and P Sai Teja (17), jumped in and tried to rescue Prasada Rao. However, all four met the watery grave, police said.
Police later fished out the bodies of Sai Teja and Srinivasa Rao. V Prasada Rao and Srinivasa Rao were cousins and employed with East Coast Railway.
Search operation for the other two bodies were stopped due to bad light and severe cold. The operation will resume tomorrow, police said.