There are a few women making pongal in the morning, none at night. Several bringing what they made at home + the maa-vilakku from home – in all the Amman temples today.
10AM 108 paal kudam abhishekam: Not sure 108 were used, but you’ve to buy a 100rs ticket and then you get a koodam of milk – we saw women pouring the milk, so perhaps there could be more added. Then the koodams are decorated with turmeric and kunkumam, and their necks tied with neem leaves. They’re placed outside the Calcutta Kali shrine, a small puja with a kalasam happens there, and the women with tickets pick each one and the priest gets the one with the kalasa – they go out in procession, zig zagging through the streets. Before they depart and as they return there’s a deeparadhanai, and then the women (all chanting “Om shakti Parashakti”) come in via the central passage marked by guardrails, and the milk is poured over the deity. Soon a group gathers outside near the pranala (கோமுகை (Gomukhai) or நாழி (Naazhi) / நாளம் (Naalam)) to catch the milk that falls there. The pranala has been cleansed itself with turmeric and kunkuma, though the priest does have to stick a bar through its opening at one point. There’s an aradhanai. Then the alankaram in the evening is just silver kavacham, nothing like last week.
There are some young women like Charu who will ask me for photos, and who are participating in events like this for the first time. I see her at many pujas after this. Being at the temple and a part of its ritual life is clearly a path to womanhood in this area of town. Charu is not alone; the demographics of this temple are wide, and there are many young (and beautiful, and beautifully attired in saris!) women who join the pujas. The priests know this, and advise and coach accordingly.