Thenthiruperai Panguni Garuda Sevai

It was a night when old time residents congregated and mingled with each other at this Divya Desam for the biggest utsavam of the year 

A sleepless 24 hours for Ananthu Bhattar, a beautiful decoration by the young Rahul Bhattar

It has been over 25 years since Ananthu Bhattar has been anchoring the Garuda Sevai in Panguni at the Makara Nedung Kuzhai Kathan Divya Desam in Thenthiruperai.  Over the last few years, he has had the support of the young Rahul Bhattar, hailing from this historical Nam Azhvaar praised temple town. While it may not seem believable, during this entire phase over the last two plus decades Ananthu Bhattar has not gone home during the Brahmotsavam and spends the entire day and night at the temple. 

On Tuesday (April 15), it was no different. The fifth day of the Panguni Brahmotsavam is the biggest day in the year at Thenthiruperai with a lot of the original inhabitants making it to have darshan of Nigaril Mugil Vannan atop the Garuda Vahana.

The presentation of Nachiyar Thirumozhi verses as part of this fifth day event did not end till late afternoon and soon after Ananthu Bhattar, Rahul Bhattar along with the support team got down to the task of decorating Nigaril Mugil Vannan as well as Thiruperai Nachiyar atop the Hamsa Vahana.

வெள்ளைச் சூரி சங்கொடு ஆழி ஏந்தி 

தாமரைக்கு கண்ணன் என் நெஞ்சினூடே 

புன்னைக் காடாகின்ற ஆற்றைக் காணீர் 

என் சொல்லிச் சொல்லுகேன் அன்னைமீர்காள் 

வெள்ளச் சுகம் அவன் வீற்றிருந்த 

வேத ஒலியும் விழா ஒலியும் 

பிள்ளைக குழா விளையாட்டு ஒலியும் ஆறாத் 

திருப்பேரெயில் சேர்வான் நானே - Thiruvoimozhi ( 7.3.1)

Nam Azhvaar describes the fields around the temple as being fertile with big growth of Paddy. The huge tanks were filled with water to the brim. Thenthiruperai was so prosperous that there were huge mansions all around the place.

Into the evening, devotees began thronging the temple in good numbers. The Thiruvoimozhi Pillai descendants came from Azhvaar Tirunagari to support the temple priests with one helping out with the alankaram and the other taking care of darshan for the devotees at the Moolavar Sannidhi.

Just after 9pm, Upanyasakar and a prominent face at this Divya Desam Aravinda Lochanan, who spent his entire childhood from the late 1970s at Thenthiruperai, arrived at the temple with the decoration still continuing.  Over the last two plus decades he too followed the trend and moved to Chennai. 

This section had featured a story in 2016 on how this temple town had been a vibrant one in the past (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/09/thenthiruperai-divya-desam.html). Ranganayaki, who had been the the oldest resident of Thenthiruperai passed away a few years ago but she would have been delighted at her Scientist son Kannan staying all through the Garuda Sevai procession donning an active role as a kainkaryapar. 

Aravinda Lochanan has always been closely attached to this temple and recalled to this writer his memories from his early schooling days “This is a temple town of Sama Veda residents. Till the 1970s, the Agraharam and the Mada streets were vibrant with vedic and prabhandham scholars. We would swim regularly in the Thamarai Barani and climb trees. These gave us strength and confidence. We also moved along with the river flow to reach Erettai Tirupathi Divya North of the Thamarai Barani. However, the 70s and 80s was a phase when most of the original inhabitants left this temple town seeking greener pastures in bigger cities and hence it was a slowdown period for the temple in terms of the grandeur of the utsavams over those two decades. But over the last 25 years the utsavams are back to its vibrant best especially on this fifth day of the Brahmotsavam when a lot of the old time residents come back for the Garuda Sevai.”

He points to his centuries old traditional house on North Chariot street and is delighted at how the old traditional constructions were.

At the temple, just after 10pm, a good sized prabhandham members had gathered at the eastern entrance. To Thiruviruttam Thodakkam, the screen opened with hundreds of devotees having a first glimpse of the beautifully decorated Perumal and Thayar.

Rahul Bhattar is just 26 (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2021/10/thenthiruperai-rahul-bhattar.html) and is devotionally excited about his role during alankaram on such utsavam occasions. After he completed his agama initiation, he had lucrative offers to move to bigger cities but right from his childhood he has been devotionally attached to the Perumal of Thenthiruperai and he had no second thoughts about spending his entire life here at this Divya Desam. It is now a few years since he joined this temple and has always been thinking about making every decoration a better one. 

 Through the year he has been looking at decorations across Divya Desams to see how the decoration of his own Perumal and Thayar can be improvised. One such was ten parrots that Nigiral Mughil Vannan donned as part of the alankaram. All the flower garlands were large sized and in many different varieties. 

While the Moolavar has received golden kavachams over the last few years, the utsava deity shone brightly with sparkling ornaments. 

For the next couple of hours, the divine couple received vastrams and flower garlands.  Every single flower garland that was presented on the night during the Garuda Sevai procession was fully draped on Perumal and Thayar and remained on them through the night long procession. Every activity was unhurried with the priests taking time to place the flower garland and the vastram on the deities as well as presenting the Deeparathanai after the presentation of the Thattu.

It has been a historical practice for a devotee to burst a huge quantity of fire crackers in the first part of the procession and it was no different on this night though the procession moved on quicker than in earlier years. 

The trio at Thenthiruperai 

Sannidhi paricharakar is carrying the sacred theertham at the procession. He is part of the formidable trip at this Divya Desam.

It was midnight when Nigaril Mughil Vannan made his way to the Eastern Entrance after the procession around the four inner Mada Streets. Following the historical tradition of alerting the residents of the Lord making it to the Sannidhi Street, the drums specialist was heating up his two drums even as the Lord turned on to the East Mada Street. And once in front of the temple, he played this distinctive drum with Perumal presenting a special walk making his way towards the Sannidhi street. 

Soon after, devotees gathered in large numbers on the Sannidhi street as the white canopies went up on both Perumal and Thayar. And for the next hour, Perumal and Thayar stopped in front of every single house with devotees presenting flower garlands and vastrams.

For the first two hours, Ananthu Bhattar (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2021/12/thenthiruperai-ananthu-bhattar.html) donned the role of placing the garlands and vastrams on the Lord. And now past midnight, the descendant of Thiruvoimozhi Pillai took over alongside Rahul Bhattar with Ananthu Bhattar walking along with Perumal on the procession. 

Even as Nigaril Mughil Vannan made his way to west end of the South Chariot street, the cracker devotee made his disappointment known to Ananthu Bhattar of cutting short the cracker time and the procession moving on. Ananthu Bhattar, as has been his way all these years, told him point blank at the instruction received from the officials and the direction for Perumal to not stop indefinitely in front of any one house.

The streets for a brahmotsavam procession 

It is the biggest festival of the year at this Divya Desam and the chariot procession is only a few days away but the Chariot streets are in terrible condition with the Sripatham and Kainkaryaparas finding it challenging to wade through the streets filled with sharp, hard stones. There are no HR& CE officials present during the procession and they may not even be aware of the hardships of these tireless Kainkaryaparas given the state of the sacred streets!!!!

Procession continues after 2am

It is 2am when Perumal made his way to the North Chariot street with Aravinda Lochanan welcoming the Lord in front of his house with his Thattu. He is just back in Thenthiruperai after a Ramayana Upanyasam in Chennai to mark the Rama Navami utsavam there. He is all praise of this Panguni utsavam and what it means to the residents here “This is the only Divya Desam where Perumal presents himself in an Azhvaar Thiru Kolam during a Brahmotsavam. On the second day, Nigaril Mughil Vannan provides darshan in Nam Azhvaar Thiru Kolam.”

Historically, the Garuda Sevai procession used to start only at midnight and would go on till 5.30am when the Sun God’s rays falls on his brother Garuda when the Lord makes his way back into the Sannidhi streets, Aravinda Lochanan tells this writer.

Thankfully, it's been a much earlier start these days though in the times to come one has to introspect the part about perumal staying in the street till 3am. Across Divya Desams, this trend of through the night procession has been coming down and it is hoped that in the near future, here too the street processions including the garuda sevai ends before midnight.

Will the trend be reversed?

While the residents present the thattu in front of their homes and go back inside, the sripatham and archakas have to carry on till very early the next morning by when they already have to start preparing for that morning's procession!! 

Also, it is hoped that the residents would be more empathetic regarding the historical trend of perumal stopping every few yards  at every single house. It is time that in such remote temple towns where there is severe shortage of service personnel, residents agree in unison to present thattu in select locations on the sacred streets instead of making the lord stop in front of every single house. Time will tell if the residents in such towns become more considerate and understand the challenges of Kainkaryaparas.

The streets are packed with cars, an indication of the Lord taking care of the well being of the old time residents of Thenthiruperai. A Kainkaryapara told this writer that this being seen as a Sukra Sthalam, Makara Nedung Kuzhai Kathar has ensured that his devotees are spread far and wide around the world pointing specifically at a Rs. 15 lakh car bought by an old time resident of this temple town.

Back on to the Sannidhi street, the devotees gather for the Thiruviruttam Satru Murai and Prasadam. Aravinda Lochanan, along with Vedic members present the Vedas. 

It had been a fulfilling 5 hours around the streets of Thenthiruperai and devotees are seen talking about the decoration and its grandeur. Late into the night, the consensus was that this was a beautiful decoration of the two deities with the devotees expressing that they have just not been able to take their eyes away from the divine couple of Thenthiruperai on this night.

From 10pm to 5am without a break

Ananthu Bhattar presented a flower garland to each of the nadaswaram and melam artistes followed by parivattam and flower garlands to the donors of this utsavam. Rahul Bhattar and Ananthu Bhattar spend the best part of the next hour getting Perumal and Thayar ready for the ekantha sevai procession even as most of the devotees returned home for a short rest. They had already working on the alankaram from the previous evening and it is now almost 12 hours when they performed Kainkaryam without a break.

It is past 5am when Thiruperai Nachiyar seated in front of Nigiral Mughil Vannan, both now without the grand ornaments and flower garlands of the night, presented a slow Ekantha Sevai procession back to the Sannidhi watched by around 50 devotees who stayed back well into the morning to this special procession, a distinctive feature after the Garuda Sevai.

A Special Puttu

It has been over 24 hours since Ananthu Bhattar and Rahul Bhattar have slept but there is still some work left for them.  A special Puttu, another distinctive feature at this Divya Desam, is distributed by Rahul Bhattar to the devotees who stayed back for Ekantha Sevai and all of them return home with great happiness of having had darshan of the Garuda Sevai. 

Aravind Lochanan turns nostalgic looking forward to the next few days “On the 7th day, when Thiru Kalyanam is celebrated, the deities wear Manjal Vastram. During my childhood days, it was a special delight to see residents in every house splashing a Kudam of Manjal water on the kainkaryaparas. The belief was that this would remove all the sins that we commit in our lives.”

There is a twinkle in his eyes when he talks about the Horse Vahana “Devotees in several hundreds would come here on a bullock cart from Valliyur for the Horse Vahana and the Chariot procession. Their belief is that all the problems would be solved if they seek the blessings of the Lord on this occasion.”

Ananthu Bhattar has seen from close quarter every year in the last 25 years. He says that they would roll themselves around the chariot streets similar to an anga-pradakshinam mode such is their devotion and belief in this Perumal.

 

For Ananthu Bhattar, the attention moves back to the 7.30am procession on the 6th day of the utsavam and there is no sleep for him as he gets once again into the procession mode even though it is just an hour since the Lord made his way back to the Sannidhi.

There is a sense of satisfaction within him at the devotees presenting positive feedback about the alankaram and the way the procession was organised but there is lot more to do with another long procession on the Horse Vahana day followed by the Chariot Festival.