Nandanotsavam Day 1
The Perarulalan, Kanchi Varadarajan ’s Brahmotsavam has begun. I missed the early morning walk to the temple and up into hill of Athigiri, the elephant hill to see that Lord leave the Moolasthanam, sanctum sanctorum to come down and preside over the Dwajarohanam.
There were years when we would walk a km or two in the early hours to cross the Toll Gate, which is considered the boundary of the town to escape being caught in the “kodi”. It is a custom that once you are there when the Dwaja or kodi is hoisted that you should stay in the town till the Dwaraavarohnam which happens after the 10 day festival is over. Some of us who wouldn’t stay for all the ten days will go and stand outside the Toll Gate, till we heard the loud single cracker go up.
For every single step of the Lord is announced by bursting the loud cracker. The first sound tells you the Lord has left the Moolasthanam. The second when he enters the Vaahana Mandapam – Where the vehicle of the day or vahana is kept ready. Once, He mounts the Vahana and gets dressed up and ready to leave another cracker go would go up.
While waiting in the good old days before the mobile phones arrived we had to go by the count of the crackers to know if the flag has been hoisted or not. Now, we have friends who would call us up on mobile to tell us it is time for us to get back into the town.
I missed the Dwajarohanam today, which Dindigul Ramaswamy Iyengar who recorded the last Nandanotsavam didn’t. Nandana is the Tamil year which is the current year and Iyengar had recorded the Utsavam of the Nandana Year in the last cycle 60-yrs ago.
I missed it for a good point. For the person whose wedding I had attend, her grandmother used to our host in Kanchipuram, when I visited every year from Arakkonam. My association with Varada’s Brahmotsavam wouldn’t be what it is if Pushpa had not taken us as guests and treated us with her wonderful food year after year.
After the wedding feast I arrived at Kanchi when the town was sweltering under the afternoon sun, and the town was quiet with half the shops shut may be because of the petrol strike. Except for the huge pandal outside the temple and pandals outside few homes, the Little Kanchi or the Kanchi which is known as the Vaishnavite quarter or Vishnu Kanchi is located had few signs of festivity.
By evening, with the sound of first cracker ladies were outside their houses sprinkling water and adorning the road with beautiful kolams. Several cars went by and destroyed the kolams before the Lord would come out on procession. The shops have started coming up selling anything from a aruvalmanai, pallankuzhi, to manjal kunkum to cauliflower pakoda.
He has come
Merciful Perumal of Elephant Hill
He has come
Perumal
To be seen before ou r very eyes in the city of Kanci
(Trasnslation from Meiviradamanmiyam of Swami Vedanta Desika from Steven Paul Hopkins’ ‘Singing the Body of God’)
Ramaswamy Iyengar recollects Andal’s Thiruppavai “Maari Malai Muzhanjil Mannikkidandurangum Seeriya Singam Arivutru Theevizhithu,” description of the Lord as a majestic Lion that wakes up from its slumber and walks out with a roar as the befitting of Varada’s leaving his abode to come down to Athigiri in the morning for the Dwajarohanam. The Lion of a Lord in the evening mounts a Simhavahanam, the first procession in a Vahanam in the Brahmotsavam. The Lord goes out in the evening chasing the setting, wearing an orange silk robe matching the colours of the sky. It is a long walk – he goes six kilometers to Gangai Kondan Mandapam in the Periya Kanchi and back to his abode. The utsavam has begun. I will have to now keep awake for the Rendaam Kappu, when the Lord will set out surreptitiously at 2 pm in the night, go around and check all the sannidhis, prakarams including the Madappalli before be goes back to Athigiri to take the second vow for the Brahmotsavam.
There were years when we would walk a km or two in the early hours to cross the Toll Gate, which is considered the boundary of the town to escape being caught in the “kodi”. It is a custom that once you are there when the Dwaja or kodi is hoisted that you should stay in the town till the Dwaraavarohnam which happens after the 10 day festival is over. Some of us who wouldn’t stay for all the ten days will go and stand outside the Toll Gate, till we heard the loud single cracker go up.
For every single step of the Lord is announced by bursting the loud cracker. The first sound tells you the Lord has left the Moolasthanam. The second when he enters the Vaahana Mandapam – Where the vehicle of the day or vahana is kept ready. Once, He mounts the Vahana and gets dressed up and ready to leave another cracker go would go up.
While waiting in the good old days before the mobile phones arrived we had to go by the count of the crackers to know if the flag has been hoisted or not. Now, we have friends who would call us up on mobile to tell us it is time for us to get back into the town.
I missed the Dwajarohanam today, which Dindigul Ramaswamy Iyengar who recorded the last Nandanotsavam didn’t. Nandana is the Tamil year which is the current year and Iyengar had recorded the Utsavam of the Nandana Year in the last cycle 60-yrs ago.
I missed it for a good point. For the person whose wedding I had attend, her grandmother used to our host in Kanchipuram, when I visited every year from Arakkonam. My association with Varada’s Brahmotsavam wouldn’t be what it is if Pushpa had not taken us as guests and treated us with her wonderful food year after year.
After the wedding feast I arrived at Kanchi when the town was sweltering under the afternoon sun, and the town was quiet with half the shops shut may be because of the petrol strike. Except for the huge pandal outside the temple and pandals outside few homes, the Little Kanchi or the Kanchi which is known as the Vaishnavite quarter or Vishnu Kanchi is located had few signs of festivity.
By evening, with the sound of first cracker ladies were outside their houses sprinkling water and adorning the road with beautiful kolams. Several cars went by and destroyed the kolams before the Lord would come out on procession. The shops have started coming up selling anything from a aruvalmanai, pallankuzhi, to manjal kunkum to cauliflower pakoda.
He has come
Merciful Perumal of Elephant Hill
He has come
Perumal
To be seen before ou r very eyes in the city of Kanci
(Trasnslation from Meiviradamanmiyam of Swami Vedanta Desika from Steven Paul Hopkins’ ‘Singing the Body of God’)
Ramaswamy Iyengar recollects Andal’s Thiruppavai “Maari Malai Muzhanjil Mannikkidandurangum Seeriya Singam Arivutru Theevizhithu,” description of the Lord as a majestic Lion that wakes up from its slumber and walks out with a roar as the befitting of Varada’s leaving his abode to come down to Athigiri in the morning for the Dwajarohanam. The Lion of a Lord in the evening mounts a Simhavahanam, the first procession in a Vahanam in the Brahmotsavam. The Lord goes out in the evening chasing the setting, wearing an orange silk robe matching the colours of the sky. It is a long walk – he goes six kilometers to Gangai Kondan Mandapam in the Periya Kanchi and back to his abode. The utsavam has begun. I will have to now keep awake for the Rendaam Kappu, when the Lord will set out surreptitiously at 2 pm in the night, go around and check all the sannidhis, prakarams including the Madappalli before be goes back to Athigiri to take the second vow for the Brahmotsavam.
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