Thousands of devotees witnessed the grand celestial wedding of Goddess Meenakshi with Lord Sundareswarar at Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple here on Tuesday.
The celestial wedding or ‘thirukalyanam’ is the highlight of the ongoing 12-day annual Chithirai festival.
The venue of the wedding, ‘Thirukalyana Mandappam’ at the junction of West and North Adi Streets, was decorated with flowers. The devotees had started arriving as early as 5 a.m. for the wedding scheduled between 8.35 a.m. and 8.59 a.m.
After a procession along the Chithirai streets, Lord Sundareswarar with Piriyavidai and Goddess Meenakshi arrived on to the dais amidst loud applause and chants from the devotees.
Following which, their ‘guests’ Lord Subramaniaswamy with His consort Deivanai and Lord Pavalakkanivai Perumal arrived at the venue from Tirupparankundram. The deities were dressed up in resplendent silk and bedecked with jewellery.
As the legend goes, Lord Vishnu performed the ‘kannikadhanam’ of His sister, Meenakshi with Sundareswarar.
Karthik Bhattar acting as Lord Sundareswarar and Prabhu Bhattar acting as Goddess Meenakshi exchanged garlands on behalf of the deities and performed the holy rituals.
The ‘thali’ was placed on Goddess Meenakshi at 8.40 a.m. amid chanting of mantras.
As the event unfolded, many women replaced their sacred thread with a new one at the venue as per custom which is believed to mark renewal of bonds. Rose water and flowers were sprinkled on the deities following which a ‘maha deeparadhana’ was performed as devotees held up their hands in veneration.
Temple Deputy Commissioner A. Arunachalam said nearly 13,000 devotees witnessed the celestial wedding in person. Devotees congregated outside the temple watched the grand event telecast on LED screens stationed on the four Chithirai streets. The entire wedding was live-telecast on many television channels, YouTube, and the official Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department website.
Later, the deities were taken to the old ‘Thirukkalyana Mandapam’ on the temple premises – which was the venue for the celestial wedding until 1981 – for devotees to offer their prayers to the newlyweds.
The venue was kept cool with air coolers. The devotees then thronged the stalls offering ‘prasadam’ on the temple premises.
Among those who participated in the event included Collector S. Aneesh Sekhar, Corporation Commissioner Simranjeet Singh Kahlon, Inspector General of Police (South Zone), Asra Garg, Deputy Mayor T. Nagarajan, MLAs M. Boominathan, A. Venkatesan, G. Thalapathi, R. B. Udhayakumar and V.V. Rajan Chellappa and others.
The car festival is scheduled to take place at 6.30 a.m. on Wednesday.
