Srirangam Brahmotsavam Padippu Sridhar

The historical Padippu event on the final evening of the big utsavams has been revived over the last decade at the Ranganathaswamy temple

Temple staffer Sridhar has been assigned this sacred Kainkaryam of reading out the greatness of the temple near the Dwajasthambam in front of Namperumal

When TVS’ Venu Srinivasan was assigned the task of the restoration exercise of the Ranganathaswamy temple in Srirangam a decade ago, he undertook a Prashnam to understand the violations that had taken place at the temple earlier and the corrective measures that were required to be initiated. The outcome of the Prashnam pointed to a deficiency in the conduct of the big utsavams. The Padippu at the end of the utsavams had been a centuries old historical practice performed as a hereditary service and takes place at the conclusion of the big utsavams such as the four Brahmotsavams, the Adyayana Utsavam and Vasantha Utsavam on the final day.

When there were no descendants of the Thiru Thaazhvarai Dasar clan to continue this service, this sacred event came to a halt around four decades ago.

Venu Srinivasan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2017/11/venu-srinivasan-srirangam-temple.html), the then Chairman - Board of Trustees, was keen for the historical Padippu event to be revived and in discussion with the temple authorities identified a Vaishnavite to perform this service .

N Sridhar, who has been working in different departments at the Srirangam Temple since 1999, was asked if he would be interested and willing to don the role of reading out the text and the verses on the final evening of the utsavams. While he had no prior knowledge or experience in this recital, he considered this a great blessing to be assigned this Kainkaryam.

He reached out to the Mela Thirumaligai Vishnu Chithan Swami and learned the Santhai from him. Sridhar told this writer that he sourced the historical script relating to the Padippu from Krishnamachari of Sri Sri Press “Only after Mela Thirumaligai Swami was convinced that I was equipped to present the padippu and gave me the nod did I proceed to present the Padippu, the first of which was at the end of the Vasantha Utsavam just under ten years ago.”

“I was very emotional on that Satru Murai occasion. It was well past mid night when Namperumal made his way back from the Vasantha Mandapam. At that debut performance, there was a certain fear within me that I should present this to the best of my ability in front of Namperumal and without mistakes.” 

Padippu at Thayar Utsavams and on Vedu Pari evening

Since then, Sridhar has been the man who has performed this Padippu kainkaryam at all the Raksha Bandhanam utsavams. In addition, he also presents ‘padippu’ during the big utsavams for Thayar. Also, on the evening of the Vedu Pari event in Manal Veli during the Era Pathu Utsavam, he presents the Parimuthal Kanakku reading out the list of jewels of Namperumal.

The Padippu goes into the legend of the temple, the origin of Periya Perumal, reference to Srirangam as Bhoologa Vaikuntam and the greatness of Chandira Pushkarani, among other details. 

His appa, K Narayanan, who worked in the commercial taxes department had been the ‘double lock officer’ at the temple three decades ago.

His thatha, Krishnamachariar, performed Theertha Kainkaryam at the Chakkarathazhvaar Sannidhi in the middle of the 20th century. He credits the sincere kainkaryam of his thatha in those years when there was very little financial returns and the fruits of his service to him being belessed with this Padippu Kainkaryam. 

Now, almost a decade after the Padippu revival, Sridhar is confident and renders the Padippu with great devotion. He did not seek this kainkaryam nor did he expect that one day in his life, he would be the one to present such a sacred recital at the end of the Brahmotsavams. He considers it Ranganatha's blessing that this Kainkaryam has come on its own to him and that he has been reciting without a break for almost a decade.

Following the Bandha Katchi procession on the final evening of the Maasi Utsavam 2024, Sridhar presented the Padippu on Tuesday (Feb 20) evening  in front of Namperumal near the Dwajasthambam at the Ranganathaswamy temple.