Manimutthumariamman Koyil

The Manimutthumariamman Aalayam is a theruvu koyil or a roadside shrine that its devotees say is over a hundred years old. A Brahmin priest performs a puja daily in the mornings, and returns to perform a Friday special abhishekam every week, when the temple nirvagam also does an Annadanam. The temple itself is a building barely large enough to house the main deity, a few utsava murtis and what is needed for their weekly worship. A small prakaram winds around the shrine, to the back of which is the temple’s sthala vriksha–a neem tree, now entwined with a ficus or peepul. Beneath these trees, facing north is a small Kanaka Valli Durgai. Above the temple is a stucco figure of Parashakti, accessible only by ladder. The temple’s only major annual festival is a 3-day celebration: an elaborate homam and dhvajarohanam on Day 1, a karaga vizha or festive event centred on the worship of the Goddess through a sacred pot (karagam), which is ceremonially decorated and carried on the head in procession on Day 2, which concludes with a kumbha padayal and a veethi purappadu or street procession for the Goddess, and a special abhishekam and annadanam on Day 3, followed by an unjal utsavam. Additional priests are called in for these functions, as are pambaikarars (folk percussionists and storytellers) and other village deity ritualists.