The whiteboard announcement said 3pm, but Pournamis are busy days at this temple–the Satyanarayana puja had wrapped up early morning, and the Ambal abhishekam was about to start. Kanyaka’s utsava murti was in the garbhagriha with her. What was it–the green drape on the deity, the posture of the utsavar, the light as it shone into the garbhagriha, the absence of any crowd or the sparse use of ingredients (dravyangal) – but this was a beautiful abhishekam. The Iyer here of course is one of few who works completely alone, and it’s a lot of work, but he seems to do it without complaint or pause or any shortcuts. When he was done he gestured to us to say that the other alankaras would be done by 5pm, so we could come back then. Kind man.
When we come back (much later than 5), indeed the atmartha lingam on the side is dressed in cooked rice as is the Kanyaka Herself–and does she look resplendent or what. A piece of yellow pumpkin is the crescent in her hair, which is topped by grapes. Two more pumpkin pieces make her ears. The folds of her garments are indicated with avarakka, beans, carrots. There are patches of red (pomegranate?) on her abhaya mudra-extended arm. If the point of a well-done alankaram is to cause you to stare and stare and stare–this one sure did the trick. It helps that these alankaras are visible from the road outside, they just draw you in. The priest called in to do the alankaram is one we’ve seen at the Sivan Koyil, but he pays no attention to us.
Kamakshi alankaram for the continuation of the Navaratri vizha, which was on-going at the time and we couldn’t wait to see it finished. A lady there pulled us in for the deeparadhanai, which we saw and quickly left for Angalamman.