830am: We are there for the start of the Tamil new year. It’s heartening to see so many younger folks come all nicely dressed to the temple this morning.
A pancha murti abhishekam happened – Ganesha, Subrahmanya, Sivan, Ambal, Chandikeswara. Most people present appeared to be connected to the Chettiars, they all took big group photos at the end (incl. Aruna mami). There were groups of girls around all dressed up, I wondered if they were Malayali from PU. They didn’t seem part of the Chetty group.
Once the ull-purappadu of Siva and Parvati upon Adhikara nandi was done, we were all sent out and the gopuram doors were shut. Shortly after, they were swung open, revealing to the people (or in our case, re-revealing) the Lord and the Ambal borne by Nandi, through the Gopuram. Perhaps this is the reason to call it “gopura darshanam”?). After Siva was brought out onto the road, puja happened at the Perumal shrine and He was brought out from the temple’s North Entrance (each of the 3 entrances is named for the sannadhi most proximate – the South entrance is Gnanambigai Amman). Perumal, however, had no such dramatic entry onto the roads.
Perumal was on Garuda Vahana and Sivan on Adhikara Nandi – the combination is special and not to be seen on other days, the nirvagam head Sankaranarayana Chettiar told us. The two vahanas are in part human, part animal forms and both are silver–they “match” in some sense. Siva and Vishnu with their consorts going around the temple on the new year day I suppose is inherently special, two great streams of Indian thought, philosophy and worship traditions.
Prasadam was copious! Kesari (uncoloured!), Panchamrutam, a second kesari/ more reddish sweet, pongal, puli saadam and thair saadam. Bottles of water.