Umbrellas start arriving for Deepam festival

TIRUVANNAMALAI: As part of the ongoing celebrations for the 10-day Karthigai Deepam festival in the temple town of Tiruvannamalai, huge umbrellas for the deities have started arriving at the Arulmigu Arunachaleswarar Temple.

While the umbrellas from Chennai have already arrived, those from Vellore were sent off after poojas at Sri Jalakanteswarar Temple inside the historic Vellore Fort on Wednesday morning. The poojas were performed in the presence of Vellore Collector Kumaravel Pandian and AIADMK’s Vellore urban district secretary SRK Appu.

Umbrellas were usually provided in sets of 5 for the Pancha Murthis, sources said, adding, “but there are also occasions when individuals donate one or two umbrellas.”

A temple official seeking anonymity said, “usually these huge umbrellas are folded and loaded onto a lorry at the point of origin and when they reach Tiruvannamalai, accompanying devotees get down some distance from the temple and bring the umbrella in a procession or they disembark near the temple and after the customary poojas enter the shrine and hand over the umbrella.”

However, Sri Jalakanteswarar Temple sources said, “three umbrellas for Tiruvannamalai will be taken via road with halts at some roadside temples. However, as no renowned or famous temple is on the 85-km stretch between Vellore and Tiruvannamalai – the Polur temple is atop a hillock while that at Kalasapakkam is inside the town – is on the road it is customary only to show the umbrellas to smaller temples.”

Meanwhile, BJP state president K Annamalai condemned the installation of CCTV camera on the face of Dwarapalaka idol at the temple and said the DMK government continue to belittle culture, heritage of Tamils and Agama Vidhis. It was unacceptable and the government should stop intervening in religious faiths.