Azhagar Koil Aadi Garuda Sevai

An Eventful Monday evening at Thiru Maliruncholai

Rain Showers, Commotion on First Rights, Prabhandham and Vedic Recital mark Sundararaja Perumal's Aadi Garuda Sevai 

It is a big festive week in the year at the Sundararaja Perumal temple in Thiru Maliruncholai, 20 North of Madurai. It is one of the few days in the year that the 18 Padi Karuppanaswamy Door opens. It is early evening on Monday (August 4) and there is already a sizeable crowd that has walked into the temple from the villages around Azhagar Koil. Many of them have made their way to the Karuppanaswamy Sannidhi, while others have gone for a quick darshan of Moolavar Paramaswamy.

அலை வலைமை தவிர்த்த

அழகன் அலங்காரன் மலை

குல மலை கோல மலை

குளிர் மா மலை கொற்ற மலை

நில மலை நீண்ட மலை

திரு மாலிருஞ் சோலை யதே - The Great Hill - Thiru Maliruncholai

The Vedic members have been presenting the Vedas on the mike through the evening in front of the Moolavar Sannidhi while the Prabhandham members presented the fourth and fifth cantos of Periyazhvaar Thirumozhi and the fifth canto of Namazhvaar’s Thiruvoimozhi sitting in front of Sundararaja Perumal atop the Garuda Vahana.

The grand alankaram has already been done for the utsava deity and he is decked with huge colourful flower garlands. But suddenly the sky has gone dark with a thick cloud line that sends heavy and unexpected showers in early August. Devotees scatter around to find cover under a tree or a mandapa while the prabhandham members continue their recital.

Past 6pm, there is commotion in front of the Vahana Mandapam. If one thought that the Vaishnavite clash between Vadakalai and Thenkalai was unmatched, the villagers who claimed the first rights on this big Garuda Sevai evening showed that they were no less on this front. Two groups had differing opinions with respect to the first rights with one arguing that no individual could be given the first rights to the shatari while the other wielded the rights referring to the previous year’s protocol.

The Chief Priest of the temple, Narayanan Bhattar, very popular and respected in this region wasn’t bemused at the turn of events on this evening as both sides presented their arguments to him on how the event should proceed. For a change, the villagers got the media photographers to take a back seat and asked them to push back so the village folks could record the event on their phone camera for future reference.

By this time, the Prabhandham members had regrouped to present the decad from the 10th canto of the Thiruvoimozhi praising the greatness of Thiru Maliruncholai. Wide ranging Thaligai was distributed to the Prabhandham members and then to the devotees.

The top members from the villages were presented with Parivattam with the villagers recording every minute of this action even as Sundararaja Perumal sported a smile from atop Garuda watching this battle amongst the villagers on their first rights!!!

While the Sripatham members were readying the Lord for the procession, Narayana Bhattar then sat behind to present betel leaves and nuts to the Village chiefs. It was past 8pm when the Prabhandham members gathered once again, this time for the start of the procession with the recital of Naanmugan Thivanthathi on this fourth day of the Aadi Pooram utsavam.

The Bhagavathas were dancing in a trance even as Sundararaja Perumal made his way to the 18 Karuppanna Swamy Sannidhi to announce his departure for the procession. Soon he was mounted on to the wheeled tyres and after all the noise at the Vahana Mandapam the procession moved swiftly. There were no Thattu presentation and led by the temple elephant and the prabhandham members, Sundararaja Perumal made his way around the four streets before returning to the Vahana Mandapam.

On this Monday evening at Azhagar Koil, there was action of all kinds. Devotees thronging the Karuppanna Swamy Sannidhi, Vedic members sitting in a peaceful atmosphere in front of the Moolavar Sannidhi reciting the Vedas, the prabhandham members presenting the sacred verses of the Azhvaars behind closed screen with the devotees only being able to hear their voices, the relentless arguments among the villagers on the first rights in front of Garuda, Narayana Bhattar sporting a smiling face amid the commotion and the surprise heavy showers in early August.

By 9pm, a lot of the crowd had dispersed as had the rain showers even as Sundararaja Perumal made his way back to the Vahana Mandapam.

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Tarika Ram Happiness Exhibition August 2025

Happiness Exhibition

After three solo abstract painting exhibitions on the Thirukural in the last couple of years, this 18 year old will be showcasing around 30 works on the complex topic of 'Happiness' at her fourth solo exhibition, later this month

Tarika Ram

In January 2023 this section had featured a story on Tarika Ram’s debut solo art exhibition at Chola Art Gallery where she had presented her interpretations of around 25 verses from the Thirukural in the form of abstract paintings. 2 ½ years later, this 18 year old will be showcasing her art talent later this month presenting around 30 works centered around a quite complex theme - ‘Happiness’. While she had started out with her passion for art through paintings, she has since expanded her portfolio to include tapestry, digital art, clay sculpture and installation.

A decade long engagement with Art Mentor

Art teacher Diana Shatish is deeply committed to fostering community connections through art and has an experience of close to 25 years as an art teacher. She has collaborated with children from diverse ethnic backgrounds and runs a weekend studio offering a non- judgmental space to explore art with freedom. She has been involved with Tarika for close to a decade having started out when the latter was just 9 years old and has played a significant role in laying a strong foundation in visual arts and shaping Tarika's steady growth as an artist through her teenage years.

Looking back on the first phase of her association, Diana told this writer that while Tarika began by creating simple compositions experimenting with basics of line, colour and composition using a variety of art materials she was quick to grasp the concepts and visualise the scenario. "We began with exploratory activities like drawing and painting, doodling, breathing exercises while painting, scraping, using various tools to create textures. Even in that early phase, I noticed that she used unique colour combinations such as pink and brown which was beautiful" says Diana. 

Nava Golu Installation at 11

Even before she moved into her teens, Tarika' s interest in arts deepened through structured projects. "She began to display improved control over mediums, learning perspective and colour theory, combining materials like fabric and paint and produced complex pieces including a large room size installation for Navarathri Golu when she was just 11. She developed a mature, self-driven approach, creating a portfolio reflecting her unique style" says Diana on Tarika seemed to have a natural talent for arts even at that young age.

Indepth into the Thirukural Sonnets

Tarika, a resident of Prithvi Avenue, Abhiramapuram, credits her parents (Srivats and Aruna) for her early interest in Thirukural and for seeding the thought in her to do a project on Thirukural. This led her to go deep into this subject and she began exploring the Thirukural reading the translated version of Gopalkrishna Gandhi. Picking up around 25 of the Saint Poet’s sonnets, she spent hundreds of hours understanding the significance of the messages and then went about translating them into abstract expressionist paintings. As she began reading the verses from the Kural, the messages of Thiruvalluvar captivated her mind. “I learnt the first kural as a teenager and decided to paint my interpretation of it. My appa and my art mentor Diana (madam) suggested to me to do abstract paintings on canvases of different sizes. I first started with smaller canvases and have since moved to larger ones.”

Three Solo Exhibitions on Thirukural

She says that her interest in Thiru Kural has grown over the years “My three solo exhibitions were all based on the Tirukkural. It was an exciting early experience for me as there were many visitors at the exhibitions at Cholamandalam Art Gallery and Alliance Francaise and I enjoyed interacting with them and presenting the thought process behind the paintings. The positive feedback was very encouraging and spurred me into the next phase” Tarika told this writer.

She also found the concert at the exhibition by the renowned Sikkil Gurucharan based on the Kurals she had painted very motivating and says that she was particularly touched by the weaving together of the three art forms - poetry, music and painting.

Tarika is all praise for her art teacher for providing her a lot of exposure to a gamut of  techniques and materials that has helped build her confidence in wide ranging areas. She is particularly pleased for introducing her to the Indonesian Batik techniques.

From Thirukural to Happiness

Having presented three solo exhibitions on the sonnets from Thirukural in the previous couple of years, Tarika took on a very challenging engagement for her next one that even left her art teacher stunned. Happiness is a state of mind that everyone is trying to reach and one that most are grappling with. Tarika found this interesting and decided to present an artist’s interpretation on this most talked about aspect in life. 

Diana couldn't believe it when Tarika brought to her the concept of Happiness as a theme for her next exhibition "I was delighted to see a teenager get deep into even the sub branches of Happiness like thought, flow, gratitude, music, colour, purusharthas, ikigai, toxic positivity and forgiveness. It was so complicated to even comprehend these topics in a non-representational way." 

Her Inspirations

She has drawn inspiration from Brazilian artist Beatrize Milhazes and French Visual artist Henri Matisse. The traditional art form from Maharashtra, Warli Art, is also something that she has looked up to. In addition to her mentor Diana Shatish, she says that two Chennai artists, Rvindran and Kalyani Pramod have guided her along the way. Specifically on Tapestries, she says that she drew inspiration after visiting a show in Chennai called Jarracharra  based on Australian Aboriginal art.

Tarika says that this was a well thought out idea and believes this concept to be relevant to everyone "I chose happiness because everyone wants to be happy and it’s a universal emotion. Yet, some people struggle to achieve an optimal state of well-being. Further, this is a topic that can be conveyed through abstract art and that's the reason I was confident that I could take this up and present."

                         Tarika with Art Teacher Diana

Diana provides insights into how the two of them went through this process of presenting Happiness in an art form "We de-coded these complex topics through positive psychology and decolonial lenses using Tapestries. She has weaved, painted, coloured, sewed, used collage and dyed one's own cloth using natural dyes, fostering emotional depth in tapestries."

Tarika was quick to grasp these aspects and offered mind blowing ideas such as vibrant dye palettes and suggesting rhythmic patterns, sparking innovative designs for harmony refining her art mentor's approach to joy. "This meant that I could quickly move Tarika onto cohesive series design and planning this exhibition which will be all about tapestries and textile" says Diana.

While her appa Srivats will be at several important Board Meetings this fortnight with this being a peak season to announce the first quarter results, Tarika will be at work on another kind of 'Board'. She is in the process of giving the final touches to her 30 works on 'Happiness' that she will present in a week long exhibition end of this month. 

Her passionate interest in art over the last decade has driven her to take this up as a full time career and the exhibition this month will be an important milestone in this art journey of hers.