Sakthi Thamil Changam - English articles                                      

                         MADURAI CHITIRAI FESTIVAL-3

Now when Meenakshi 's wedding gets over, people of Madurai rushes towards Alagar malai. Now Alagar is ready to start his grand procession towards Madurai.   He is decorated as '' Kallar''[theif]. He is the real thief who is stealing the minds and souls of all devotees. He is starting his grand procession to conquer all minds of ignorance.

The idol is placed on a grand palanquin and bared by many devotees in turn. Before he starts, his royal elephant, camels, bulls, collection hundys [money collecting vessels], Vedha parayana group, Divya prabhandha chanting group proceeds towards Madurai.

He just starts his long journey after offering poojas to his guard ''18 steps Karuppu swamy''. His jewels, money and costumes were listed and appealed to Karupuswamy.

Karupuswamy is the demy God who is believed to reside in the long gigantic doors of Alagar's entrance in  Gopuram [temple tower].

The doors are smeared with sandal paste and kumkum. The doors are also decorated with flowers and garlands and bells. Near the doors there are many swords, mazes made of wood and brass.

When Alagar starts his procession ,thousands of crackers will be fired and thousands of trumpets, drums, nadhaswarms and thavil [a loud drum] and varieties of local musical instruments will be played. The unique shrill voice made by local women called ''kulavai'' will be joining all along his procession.

The kallar community people, all other devotees of Madurai, Dindigul, Ramanathapuram and other southern districts of Tamil nadu also joins and the crowd increases to lakh in number. The procession will be all along the way to Maduari city.

Mandakapadi:

When Alagar begins his procession, all along the way there are many small and big sheds or mantabhams called ''mandakapadi'' gets ready to welcome him.Each shed will be owned by certain sect of devotees. They gather there 2 days before with their family and friends. They decorate the mantabam with pandal ,plantain trees,  flowers, garlands and serials et lights.

Alagar will be taken into these mantakapadies for 5 minutes.n He will rest there to see his devotees gathered inside those sheds. Devotees offer garlands, costumes and sacred food [prasadham] to alagar.

The priest will do small poojas to Alagar behalf of the devotees and offer flowers and garlands. Some time sandal paste will be offered.

If we need to have a mantakapadi we need to contact the temple office and book with an amount.

The mantakapadies are famous for the varieties of offerings like food, water, buttermilk, sweets, hand fans to all people especially to poors. Offering food to poors is called as ''anna dhaanam'' which is considered as most important event in any Hindu festival.

Thus Alagar proceeds towards Madurai .In each and every village the villagers welcome Alagar and offer very grand poojas. is very unique to see Madurai people enjoy in listening music.Local village ballads, folk songs on Alagar, recent release on Alagar by famous singers will be played through gigantic speakers. The thunderous loud music will never disturb us but we too will enjoy. The dances offered by many devotees will make us to dance. Dancing before all is a type of shedding our personal ego.

True devotees put off the sun:

The festival mood makes us to forget about the sun. The devotees pump chill water all over the place and upon us. Who are they?

They are devotees from all over Tamil nadu. They would have prayed for some thing personal in their life. That wish must have been blessed by Alagar. So they are here after 21 days fasting to help Alagar and his devotees across the procession .

These devotees are dressed like Alagar. The crown is made of bamboo shoots like a cone, wrapped with beautiful silk embryodry cloth.The top is covered with peacock feathers and some times with pictures of Vishnu. Many devotees adorn the top with a beautiful parrot made of thermacole or plastic.

The costume is made of 2 pieces---a top ..full hand shirt completely decorated with shining materials .The bottom is a trouser with few decorations. They wear garlands. They smear their body with sandal paste to protect the heat. They hold a bag made out of sheep leather. It is filled with chill water and it has a pump. Often the devotees pump with loud shouting'' Govindha' '[one of the most common names of Vishnu] and dance for the drum beats. They are also allowed to pump the water on the idol. [no where people are allowed to do it]

The devotees also sing a special folk song called ''Alagar varnippu''.It explains the myth of Alagar and his Chitirai festival.

The devotees make a prayer and decide among them selves how long to accompany Alagar. Each area will be ready with groups of such devotees to receive Alagar.

They too trans them self  as Alagar and foretell the future. People gather around them and pray to them as Alagar and also offer little money. They too gather around Alagar and shout and scream his names and sing. The dance performed by these devotees will make us to dance. The children, teenagers, small girls also join to dance.

The celestial thief who cant be punished:

Now let us go near the palanquin. It is placed on a 4 wheel pulling cart. The temple servants take turn in pulling the cart. They will be highly respected in this festival. The cart will be surrounded and protected by 40 to 50 police people. Why?

Yes! the idol is made of pure gold called ''aparaajitham''. One more such small idol in the nation is in Thiruvananthapuram [Kerala] Padmanabhaswamy temple. The idol is having 4 hands.The top 2 holds the conch and disc. The lower right hand shows Varadha mudra [symbol of blessing and asking to surrender to his feet]. His left hand is placed on his knee. The idol is 4 feet tall and face alone is exposed.The smile in the face is beyond all narrations. The face changes from angle to angle. The head is covered with black turban. The body is covered with golden amour.

Alagar is now decorated as ''Kallar''.....theif. The body is covered with cotton cloth with grand embroidery work called ''kandangi saree''. Two golden hands are fixed from his shoulders .They bare a long spear, knife and a boomerang. Two golden feet are also fixed. He is dressed as kallars who lived before 1000s of years in Madurai area.

When Algar enters into a village ,people gather and offer many poojas. They light camphor on a piece of banana leaf spreader on a small vessel filled with jiggery or sugar candy and peanuts. This will be considered as a main prasadam.

The visit of Alagar to Madurai has a link with Sreemath Bahavatham[ancient sanakrith epic by Vyasa which explains all incarnations of Vishnu, especially Krishna 's life] in which Krishna's very first visit to Mathura [near Delhi] got narrated by Vyasar.

Though there is no connection with Krishna's Mathura visit and Alagar's Madurai visit, one common factor is clear. In Mathura and in Madurai, devotees gathered and offered what ever they can. Only pure bakthy is important. Alagar is mostly celebrated as Krishna only.

The palanquin is accompanied with a big flag embalmed with Sree Hanuman. He is also shaded with an umbrella made of flowers. Let us go to the next article to welcome Alagar inside Madurai city.

Thanking you!!!

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