8am - Venugopala and Navaneethakrishnan come out of the shadows of the Ramar Sannadhi for their single annual appearance. One would expect this one-off emergence to be a great crowd-puller, but the temple is surprisingly empty. Perhaps the keenest of devotees had their fill past midnight last night, when all the Krishnas had an aradhanai under the moonlit sky. The two Krishnas are exquisite in their yellow-red adornments and their emergence is splendid. Albeit only an ul-purappadu, watching Navaneethakrishnan joyfully dance butter-in-hand on the morning of the uriyadi utsavam was very sweet.
After 630pm - the uriyadi utsavam’s purappadu began. It was Perumal – in the form of Krishna climbing up a ladder towards a butter-pot – who came out. Once on the street, He stopped along the southern madaveethi to allow for dances followed by the uriyadi. We can’t tell if the dances with the sticks are South Indian or Garba-Dandiya inspired. The Gopis nonetheless had the effect of urging Krishna to reach and smash the butter-pot. The uri itself was merely decorative paper or plastic, with tiny pots hanging at the bottom. Once the boys stepped up with their sticks, it was all drama and excitement. The uri hanging from a pulley was pulled and controlled by a gentleman who kept it teasingly out of the boys’ sticks’ reach. To add to the stimulation, bucket after bucket of water was splashed on the boys’ faces as they reached out to smack the uri. After a significant back-and-forth, the uri was finally hit and caught, concluding the first of the uriyadis of the night. By the looks of it, the same uri will be tied at the different points – madaveethi south (what we saw), madaveethi north, and on the two northern and southern crossings of Mission Street.