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Into the Vasanta Mandapam

Varadaraja Perumal KoyilAlvar UtsavamsVasanta Utsavam

We went for this, particularly to see the purappadu from the moolasthanam to the Vasanta mandapam. (Periyalvar Utsavam had wound up by then.) Perumal emerges from the moolasthanam and then does the usual circumambulation, stopping at various sannadhis (where the priests take his satari into the other sannadhis, touch them onto heads, shoulders, then brings them out to devotees before finally returning to the waiting Perumal). The final stop is at Hanuman, and then He enters the Vasanta Mandapam, does one round of the place, sits on his swing. The channel is filled with water and floating flowers–a sad simulation of a garden, but still: grand!

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