It felt as though we were called to Thiruvanthipuram. We’d been thinking, watching an evening’s purappadu at the Perumal koyil, that our work would benefit from seeing these same utsavams carried out at other temples, when we found ourselves in a knot formed by the temple Bhattacharya, a staunch temple devotee named Venadavaradan, and Rajagopal Thathacharya. What you see here, they all said in more words or fewer but with equal urgency and enthusiasm, compares little to what happens at Thiruvanthipuram. Go there. Details about the Desikar utsavam there were elaborated; images of a stately procession up and down a hillside conjured. The Devanathaswamy patrikai was fished out of gushing streams of temple-related WhatsApp chats. Driving distances by various modes of transport were computed, for our benefit. The directive couldn’t have been clearer. We had to go to Thiruvandipuram.
The town we saw on the morning of September 22, the last and crowning day of the Desikar Utsavam, was a town breathed with new life. It was our first visit to the temple-town of Thiruvahindrapuram. Having been dropped on the Northern face of the complex, it was a short walk to the corridor that leads to the east-facing Perumal. We passed the Manavala Mamunigal shrine which we were not too surprised to find located definitively outside the temple complex. [The Desikar shrine, as we would soon find out, is located within the temple complex in a manner that seems to place it as though in front of the Mamunigal shrine outside.] We walked up the corridor where our notice was immediately drawn upwards by the 74 steps that ascend the mountain to the shrine of the luminous Hayagriva where Vedanta Desika himself addressed this lord who is “the basis of all knowledge”. Our attention though is quickly pulled down and back towards the primary entrance of the Devanathaswamy shrine by the sounds that emanated from there. Stepping down and in through the modest doorway, we were as though washed over by the sounds that echoed across the mandapa. An ocean of adhyapakas, learned men, seated before the Desikar shrine spilling out into the mandapa and prakara, sang the Thiruppavai, Thirupalliezhuchi and Panniru Naamam and Thiru Chinnamaalai to the revered Vedantacharya. This collective offering gave the sacred a tangible presence within those walls, and the intensity pulled even the entire being of a bystander into a one-pointed surrender. This recitation ended on the highest of notes, before Desikar proceeded on his procession up the hill. The Acharya emerged from his shrine a little past 615am. He was ruby-robed and regal for his rathnangi sevai. His gait was slow, measured, supreme. He walked not to the rhythms of the thavil, but as the very essential pulse upon which the thavil, the nadaswaram, the parayanam, the fanning, and even the devotional surrender of one’s heart all built up and moved. Before him, in a small palanquin, we noticed the utsava murti of Hayagriva that was said to have been given to Desikar by Garuda himself. With the palanquin leading the way, Desikar proceeded around the temple, past the Thayar shrine in the south-west corner, exiting the temple through the eastern entrance corridor. He slowly made his way around the Southern face of the complex, and just as we had, he went past the Manavala Mamunigal shrine whose doors remained sealed. The Hayagriva palanquin marched ahead a little quicker and began its ascent up the stairs, even as Desikar still dallied round the north-east corner to the accompaniment of mallari vadyam, reared also throughout by the sounds of the Vedas.
The sky was diffused and the morning cool from the rains of the previous evening. The stairs were wet in some areas, but did not prevent the palanquin from quickly covering the flight. Atop the hill Hayagriva went straight into the chambers of Lakshmi-Hayagriva. Desikar meanwhile began his joyous climb up the hill with the thronging of over a hundred devotees around him. Once at the top, he was met with an array of fruits, flowers and deepams by the representative priests of Hayagriva. Vedanta Desikar went into the ardhamandapam for a few intimate moments with his beloved Lord, before coming out and placing himself in the large opposing mandapam, always facing the horse-headed One. The adhyapakas lined up on either side of the divine corridor for another session of intense, immersive recitations of Vedanta Desika’s sanskrit compositions. With these it was not merely the hall, rather one’s entire being which was filled with the reverberating verses, ascending to a summit where the power, beauty and infinite fullness of God didn’t seem far. They concluded with the magnificent Hayagriva Stotram after which everybody present was served prasadam: laddu, kesari, mysore-pak and fruit. A short aradhanai signalled the conclusion of the Acharya’s annual visit to Hayagriva. “It was past 9am when the Acharya made his way to the Devanathanatha Swami Sannidhi for the second of the Mangalasasanam. As he got down the hill, one of the Kainkaryaparas signalled to the Nadaswaram artistes to play the Nottuswaram and till the time Vedantha Desikar would start listening to the Prabhandham and Stotram in front of the Devanathaswamy Sannidhi, these artistes presented a devotional display of Muthuswami Dikshitar's English Notes.” [Prabhu S, PR Traveller blog]
Descending first, the Hayagriva murti of the Devanatha shrine made swift work of the flight of steps, retreating to Perumal’s sanctum. Vedanta Desikar followed, stopping every now and then for an aradhanai and a word of caution for his descent, “Swami Eccarikai!”. Once down, the sannadhis of Perumal, Rama, Chakrattalvar, Thayar, Rajagopala, Andal, Nammalvar and finally Ramanuja, were all offered Mangalasasanam by the Acharya. This was the primary event of the day, and took close to five hours of continuous recitation moving from shrine to shrine. Every shrine bestowed Acharya with fruits and flower garlands,
Acharya also receives garlands of specific flowers from each of these shrines: [Panneer roses from Hayagriva, Maniranjitham from Perumal, Pink lotus blossoms from Thayar, Jasmine from Rajagopalan in the lovely old mandapam, Kanakambaram from Andal, Magizham from either Periyalvar or Nammalvar, Vetchipoo from Bhashyakara/Ramanuja]. It was close to 230pm when Desikar finally returned to his sannadhi.
As the curtain is drawn over Vedanta Desika to prepare for his veethipurappadu, all adhyapakas and participant reciters are granted a much-needed break and given a serving of warm, nourishing, ghee-dripping kesari and peanut pakodas. The inertia is not allowed to build for long as the Acharya is placed inside the magnificent palanquin and brought out with the powerful cries of the sripada group. His carriage is immense to say the least, and the might of the sripadas’ shoulders lifting it is all the more so. The presence of Vedanta Desika is once again supreme and lofty by the force that upholds his movement from below. This devotional might seems to come at cost though, since we find many of the sripadas’ shoulders and traps bulged and deformed by the enormous burden placed upon them over the years. A few of the priests also have this though much more diminished, perhaps from their early years of service. The procession heads quickly out from the eastern entrance, passing the gateway to the Gadilam river, and heads out to the first of the two streets that run down the south of the temple. A dozen adhyapakas lead the way singing Prabandham. The palanquin follows at an adequate distance behind. Another dozen crown the rear with the magnificent sounds of the Veda. Thus moves the palanquin through the temple’s madaveethi, which doesn’t go as much around the temple as around the entire town! – that is perhaps an exaggeration; but it is unique given that the temple is situated on the Southern end of the town and that the procession moves entirely North of the temple through a chunk of the town. As it turns onto the other nameless street that leads directly to eastern temple entrance, the palanquin is brought in through the towering gates of the Desikar Thirumaligai, the abode of Desikar where he dwelt seven centuries ago. There now stands a 14-pillared hall constructed in honour of the Acharya about 200 years back. The palanquin is placed for a while in a mandapam at the end, while the priests collect water from the well situated in the garden outside at the back. Desikar is said to have built this well by hand, using unevenly shaped bricks. All the while within the hall the adhyapakas form two rows on either side of the palanquin each simultaneously reciting the Divya Prabandham and the Veda respectively. The sound is rather disharmonious, as remarks Prabhu. Upon completion, priests with the well-water pots marched ahead, with the palanquin troupe following behind in the same order.
It was 330pm, we left.