Collector pulls refurbished temple’s golden car

Sources said the chariot was not taken out of its shed for nearly 4 years, leading to calls from devotees to refurbish it. Acting on their demands, temple authorities refurbished the chariot at a cost of Rs 3.5 lakh, all of which came by way of donations. The refurbishing work was completed in February. The subsequent trials of the chariot saw a few unpleasant incidents. While a wooden horse on the chariot broke in the first run, a devotee sustained injuries after the ‘Vimanam’ atop the chariot broke and fell on him during the second run. These two incidents were considered inauspicious by the devotees.

Subsequently, the chariot which was kept near the ‘Kili Gopuram’ underwent another round of repair work a couple of days ago. Collector Kandasamy was given the honour of hauling the chariot with his family on Monday. Devotees consider the act of pulling the temple chariot sacred.