Hitting the High Seas and along with some 1,100 other souls, here’s my home for the next couple of days (or longer). Am told rain is expected – lots of it – might need to go shopping.
Update: Boat didn’t sink and it’s raining – Greetings from Port Blair…
Etir Sevai is the day that the procession of Lord Alaghar finally arrives in Madurai for the wedding of his sister – the goddess Meenaskshi. It’s actually a local holiday, so there was a big crowd out when I caught up with the procession for a couple of hours to traipse around the backstreets of Madurai.
Waiting for Lord Alaghar’s Procession to Resume
Although his temple is only 20km away, with stops at various temples and 400 mandapams (canopies erected by locals to receive blessings) along the way, it takes the best part of three days to make the trip – in the scorching heat (lots of happy ice-cream sellers here).
Perumal Temple, Tallakulam
The precession finally reaches and rests up at a small temple not from from the northern banks of the Vagai and that’s when the madness begins – you see, no-one is going to bed tonight.
I didn’t get so many photos of the madness mind you – probably because I was busy dodging armies of teenagers with waterguns – but with the crowds, the roving drumming circles, temple cows and elephants, musicians and wandering monks the place was buzzing.
A Temple Cow Working the Crowd
Eventually though, with dawn approaching, the hundreds and hundreds of thousands – who knows how many – move down to the riverbed for the main act. You see, as even the smallest child in Madurai will tell you, Lord Alaghar was late for his sister’s wedding and on hearing this at the river, does an angry about-turn.
And so, this is what everyone has come to see – the highlight of a month-long festival – Lord Alaghar on his pure gold steed entering and then leaving the Vaigai River. It was all a bit crazy really, but next thing it was all over – and time to catch up on lost sleep.
Although I did manage to catch one last 4 am procession as part of the festival – with yet more insanely large crowds – that’s largely it for Chithirai this year. By now Alaghar is back to his temple and the newly married couple returned to theirs and all is back to normal in Madurai. At least until this time next year when it happens all over again.
At the heart of the Chithirai Festival of course is the wedding of Goddess Meenakshi and Lord Sundareswarar. This being one of the most important festivals in South India, I don’t think there was ever a chance of landing an advance ticket, so it was time to queue.
Now, while I probably could have sorted one of the reserved tickets for foreign visitors, guess I’m a sucker for queuing for hours in near 40C temps hoping to get a same-day ticket. Well, a couple of buckets of sweat later, I was in.
The ceremony itself was quiet short in the end – barely half an hour. It also turned out to very solemn event – up to the point when the knot was tied that is and then you never saw so much happiness – people were beaming.
Ceremony over, devotees taking pictures of a televised Goddess Meenakshi and her new husband (at least I think its him)
With ceremonies over and like any good wedding, it was time to get fed. In this case – and on behalf of the deities – it was neighbouring shopkeepers and residents who were feeding the masses and providing free dishes of sweet pongal and biyrani for all.
Wedding over then, the newly married couple make several processions around the streets of Madurai – and none grander than the Great Car Festival early the next morning.
Take two house-sized, hand-carved, wooden chariots – one for him, one for her – each with three to four meter-wide granite wheels, get thousands of energetic locals to haul them at speed through dense crowds – without casualties hopefully – and you’ve got shock-and-awe.
And its not just the two deities and their cars – throw in some jesters and elephants, temple fan-bearers and musicians, the hawkers and the hucksters and now that’s a parade.
Finally, the two cars return to where they started – not that you could tell from shouts of the crowds that it had been five hours in hot sun (fingers crossed – my first video)
And lastly – spare a thought for the guys from the local electricity company – seems half of Madurai was in the dark while the temple cars went by…
The lavishness of Indian weddings is well known, but when it comes to the celestial wedding here in Madurai of two of Hinduism’s principal deities it gets taken to a whole new level.
After ten or so days of events preparing for the wedding, the marriage of Goddess Meenakshi to Lord Sundareswarar takes place tomorrow morning, followed then by days more of related events and celebrations.
With the population of the city said to nearly double for the festival, you could say Madurai is bracing itself.
Above – while out earlier this evening, I did manage to catch a final procession of the two deities before the wedding – this shot is of Lord Sundareswarar with both priests and police keeping close eye on things.
A funny thing happened in Madurai the other evening – it rained… for a city that’s been parched the last couple of years with failed monsoons and that’s been enduring regular water rationing, there was a certain giddiness in the air when for a couple of hours on Wednesday evening last, the heavens opened.
Even the River Vaigai that runs through the city briefly resembled well, a river… There was of course a full report in the Times of India.
Btw, yep, I’m back in India – it would seem it is possible afterall, to leave India and get a second back-to-back tourist visa – so hopefully there’ll be a few more posts from these parts yet.
So, I’ve just come from a short stay in Jaffna – spent most of my time recovering from a touch of the ‘flu though, so not much in the way of photos this time round (what do you suppose the Tamil for ‘manflu’ is?)
Jaffna (Yalpanam in Tamil) and it’s penninsula has for a long time been a major centre for Sri Lankan Tamils and their culture and while my Tamil isn’t great, it was partly to see how I could get by that brought me here.
Now, the city was also at the centre of much of the fighting during the recently ended civil war and as David Cameron found out on his recent trip, much remains to be settled from those years.
Sri Lanka’s Northernmost point – near Point Pedro.
Of course, while there has been much rebuilding and redevelopment around the city and penninsula of late, but you still get an easy-going, relaxed, by-the-seaside vibe here – so yep, Jaffa was worth the visit, but probably better done without the ‘flu.
Btw, for old car lovers, there are some great cars from the 60’s and 70’s still to be seen out and about here – VW Beatles, Morris Minors, old Peugeots, and even an Austin A55 Cambridge…
Austin A55 Cambridge Mark II Saloon
And that’s all from Jaffna…
The Slow Boat to Delhi 