We were visiting Annankoil where our friend Sri Venkataramani and Hema have set up house amidst the green fields and evergreen Tirunangoor temples, the domain of our Tirumangaiazhwar. On the evening of 3/4/2015 Hema took us to see some temples in the area. We headed towards Tirunagari. Tiruvali/Tirunagari are two separate temples but spoken of together and treated as a single divyadesam. As we were proceeding we spotted Perumal’s chariot in the distance so we got down from the car bought some offerings for Perumal from the adjoining shop and went to have darshan of Kalyana Ranganatha and Amrithakadavalli Thayar on the Ratham. We joined the locals in vaddam piddithal (pulling the ropes of the chariot). When we reached close to the ratham we sent our offerings in a basket which was pulled up and offered to the Divya Dampatis and sent down. We then proceeded to have darshan of Tirumangai Azhwar and Kumudavalli nachiyar aloft a smaller chariot which was at a standstill. Two boys were there for company on the high perch. As we stood admiring at the “Handsome couple” we heard a woman addressing azhwar. She was saying “Azhware! look what has happened!” She did not ask for protection or anything . It was just a reporting of happenings. Such then is the connection of the common folk with Azhwar. The driver who is a local resident told us that for them even Perumal was next to Azhwar. Realizing that it would probably be late night by the time the chariots reached the temple we headed to the car amazed at the fact that what we feel belongs to the remote past is still alive because of the local festivals and stories kept alive through generations.
The following are some of the photos taken during the occasion…
Video Clip :
Writeup & Video : Vyjayanthi & Sundararajan
