In his previous birth, the elephant king Gajendra had been King Indradyumna, a great devotee of Lord Vishnu. Thanks to a sage's curse, he had been born as an elephant. One day, he was with his herd in the water when a crocodile grabbed a hold of his leg. A great fight ensued, but the elephant was not equal to his adversary. As he faced almost certain death, he remembered Perumal and raised a lotus flower with his trunk. He called out to Vishnu, offering Him the lotus and praying for refuge. His prayer is known as Gajendra Stuti — the hymn of Gajendra.
This story gets ritually re-enacted in the temple–this is pretty much the essence of Gajendra Moksham, as much as we can tell.
Perumal comes out of his sannadhi and goes around after the usual pujas to the kulam at the back of the temple, where the remainder of the puja takes place. I don’t realise the interest of this event, so I wind up there late when the place is already crowded and the best vantage points taken. I have no view at all, so finally manage to squeeze into the other end, much to the amusement of Sekar mama, who chides me for my lack of fore-planning. The puja as such is a simple affair. There are two brass forms of the elephant and the crocodile with his mouth open. The lotus is on the elephant’s tusk. He gets a small abhishekam along the way. At one point, the priest signals and there’s a burst of firecrackers on the far side near the washrooms.
And that’s really all there is to it. Perumal goes back, people go down to the kulam for theertham. Suddenly the view is completely clear to take photos of the ritual remnants, and the elephant and crocodile who seem much like props, now that it’s all over.