The day of the Dhvajarohanam, Kodi Yettral or flag raising, marks the formal beginning of the Brahmotsavam itself. The little astra murti–the one that eventually takes a dip in the sea on the Theerthavari day–is kept on a stool to the left of the dhvajastambha, and all archanais and offerings are made to it as well. All other utsava murtis are out, watching the bali offerings and the deeparadhanais. The officiating priest, Venkatesa Gurukkal, directs the mangala vadyam ragas–Shankarabharanam, Sri Ragam etc. He remarks later that this could have gone on for hours, but the event had started late and that required dynamic alterations to keep within the time marked for the flag raising. Shankaranarayana Chettiar carries the kodi around the temple, and then it goes up.
It’s Arunaditya’s first day with Sthalam as a project, and we are both very visible with our cameras. Already we are being asked for photos; this is the beginning of a period when our phone contacts will start to grow and names will now be classified based on at which temple we met anyone. A young girl named Manonmani asks for photos and spells her name so we get it right because of its French inflections. She tells us her father was fond of the Manonmani amman nearby so she is named after the Goddess. Indeed, there is a small Manonmani Amman theruvu koyil nearby. We take this as direction to include that small shrine in our list of temples to document.