We go to meet the Gurukkal and Nirvagam head at the Chetty Koyil this evening. Much to learn about how ritual calendars are organised and under what circumstances temples continue to function. We take it for granted that the temple gets rental income from its surrounding properties, but these can be uncertain and precarious sources.
The Nirvagam head (Shankarnarayana Chettiar) tells us about the Ayira Vysya community whose temple this is. The community’s origin story is one not unlike that of the Arya Vysyas (whose temple Kannika Parameswari is), and will be recorded in our other notes. The similarity of names is striking, but perhaps a coincidence. Both are prominent merchant groups in Pondicherry. The community and its shrine have been around from colonial times, as we know well from entries in Ananda Rangapillai’s diaries (1736 to 1761), and have played no small role in protecting and ensuring the continuity of Hindu practices in the town. Murtis from the destroyed Vedapuriswara temple were brought here for safekeeping, we have often been told.
A unique feature of the Chetty Koyil, as it is commonly known, is that it houses both Siva and Visnu temples in the same complex. Why? Because Chettiars themselves are both Saiva and Vaishnava. (We find something similar at Kannika Parameswari, which pays obeisance to both Rama, Andal etc. as well as deities in the lineage of Siva).
After all our conversations, there is a Murugan abhishekam and ul-purappadu to mark Krittikai, around 730pm - 830pm. Shankaranarayana Chettiar is there unfailingly for every event. It's hard to imagine this temple without his presence, and we've only been around a short time.