This is Brahmotsavam day 5 (if you count from the Dhvajarohanam, 6 if you count from the Mrtsangrahanam pujas). Thirukalyanams are elaborate affairs. We get to the Chetty Koyil at 8am, and watch the preparations and the emergence of the utsava murtis. Chandrasekara and his consort are seated on Adhikara Nandi. A deeparadhanai happens. And the deities are carried outside the temple for Gopura Darshanam and Veethi purappadu (street procession around the Chetty Koyil).
Alankaram for the other deities and other preparations begin around 945am, and we are told these will take time. We watch the priests deftly tying kalasa nool or coloured string around the kalasas (alankaram which represents the naadis or nerves of the divinities that will be invoked in these). Why those colours, those strings? What She wants, I do, replies the priest. It is an explanation we have heard before and will hear many times over–refusing one’s own agency, replacing it with that of the Divine.
We go home, and return at 11. The kalyanam follows its usual sequence. Kadir from the Ghousiga Balasubramaniya Swami temple (the “Bhai Koyil”) is in attendance, though we notice this only later in photos. There are men around but the crowd in attendance is largely women. Why do thirukalyanams attract such attention from women? Everyone wants the manja kayar, so there’s a lot of it hung on the arm of the bride. Siva here (Somaskanda really) marries twice, Sati and Parvati are the two consorts. But who precisely they are in the temple’s nomenclature, we’ve yet to find out. Uma and Gnanambal, presumably. We leave after the kalyana sappadu, which is sambar saadam, a sundal preparation, chakkarai pongal, applam…
That evening is a purappadu on a Velli Vrushabham (Silver Vrushabha, or what we popularly call Nandi). Bride and groom out and in a processional reception!
Today is also Rama Navami, was that marked at the Chetty Koyil’s Perumal temple in any way? The main Varadaraja Perumal Koyil marks it with a Thiruveethi purappadu; it’s their Ramar Utsavam Day 9–of course–Navami–but we don’t discover their schedule till later.