‘Adi Ther’ festival at Alagarkoil draws thousands of devotees

Chanting “Govinda... Govinda”, a large number of devotees from southern districts pulled the car (Ther) of the famous Lord Sundararaja Perumal Temple at Alagarkoil near here on Tuesday, as part the ‘Adi’ celebrations, which commenced with the holy flag hoisting on July 24. Madurai

Chanting “Govinda... Govinda”, a large number of devotees from southern districts pulled the car (Ther) of the famous Lord Sundararaja Perumal Temple at Alagarkoil near here on Tuesday, as part the ‘Adi’ celebrations, which commenced with the holy flag hoisting on July 24.

The two most significant celebrations for the presiding deity of the temple are the ‘Adi Ther’, which falls on the full moon day in the Tamil month of Adi (August 1) and the Chithra Pournami (full moon day that occurs in April-May) when the presiding deity enters the Vaigai in Madurai city as a part of the Chithirai festival.

The devotees started arriving on the temple premises from Monday evening to participate in the cat festival that was scheduled from 8 a.m. to 8.35 a.m. on Tuesday. They lined up around the hillock at dawn and joined to pull the temple car. Priests chanted Vedic hymns and performed special ‘aradhana’, ‘abishekam’, and ‘deeparathana’.

In the evening, Pathinettam Padi Karuppasamy Temple was opened and ‘padi’ puja was performed, followed by deeparathana. Temple Deputy Commissioner M. Ramasami said on August 2, the ‘Pusha chapparam’ would be performed and on Aug 3, the concluding day of the celebrations, ‘Urchava Shanti’ would be conducted.

A large number of police personnel, led by Madurai Superintendent of Police Shiva Prasad, were present. To manage the crowd, CCTV cameras were installed.

Traffic was diverted at Appan Thirupathi since Monday to facilitate easy movement of the devotees. Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation operated special buses from Melur, Madurai Periyar and Mattuthavani bus stands.