Brahmma Desam Vinayaka Chathurthi Utsavam

It is just after 6am on the Vinayaka Chaturthi morning. Raj Kumar Bhattar, the lone Gurukal at the Kailasanathar Temple in Brahmma Desam, near Ambasamudram is already away on pooja duty. At a salary of Rs. 500 per month, it is not financially possible to manage a family. Hence he performs pooja at a few other local temples to make ends meet.

By 630am, he is back in the Brahmma Desam Agraharam that once housed 450 traditional families. By 7am, he is at the Kailasanathar temple for the morning pooja at each of the Sannidhis. And then for over an hour, he gets ready all the items required for the Ganapathy Homam that is slated to start at 9am.  His nephew, a college student in Madurai, has arrived to assist through the day long utsavam that has been revived after a gap of over 40 years. For this he has managed to rope in a devotee from Papanasam.  He has segregated the items for the homam and the subsequent abhishekam for Lord Vinayaka.

There aren’t any devotees at all through the first hour of the day with the Gurukal performing his work quietly at the Swami Sannidhi. 

A handful of devotees arrive to watch the two hour Homam and Abhishekam. Raj Kumar Bhattar is all engrossed in the Homam even as a few more devotees walk into the temple. He then moves on to the Moolavar Vinayaka to perform the Abhishekam. He has just one ‘Palai Velai’ person to support him through the year in the temple work including opening and closing the door and cleaning the temple. This support person is paid just a few hundreds each month. Through the day his son and daughter are seen supporting the Gurukal – from drawing kolam in front of the temple in the morning to picking up the waste from inside the temple. 

His first meal of the day takes place after 1.30 pm.

To get more devotees to witness the revival, he has placed a neatly written information board.

There is not much rest for him as he has to follow up with the wholesale market in Ambasamudram for the flower garlands for the evening procession. With the high demand on such days, temples have to compete with each other to secure the garlands in requisite quantities and on time ahead of the procession. Thank fully, for Raj Kumar Bhattar, the garlands arrive on time at around 4pm. For the evening session, a couple of Gurukals join him for the support activities.

28 year old Muthukrishnan Gurukal, who does full time pooja at Sankara Narayanan Temple at Ambai, has been assigned the task of decorating the utsava deity atop the Mooshika Vahanam and he spends well over an hour attending to minute aspects of the alankaram, while another youngster is given the task of the Sandalwood alankaram for the Moolavar Lord Vinayaka.

Raj Kumar Bhattar monitors the work of these two while at the same time managing the many other activities – getting prasadam ready – Chakkarai Pongal and Sundal, the lights for the procession, following up with the musicians and the Sri Patham, in addition to attending to the devotees who have come to the temple for darshan.

It is 6pm by the time the Lord is ready for the first procession in over 40 years. Residents around the four streets have begun decorating with the traditional white pulli kolam. Neivedyam is presented to the Lord and then the Sundal is a big hit with the many young boys who have gathered at the Raja Gopuram for the procession.

It is 630pm when the Lord with close to 10 colourful garlands makes his way on to the Sannidhi street outside the Eastern Raja Gopuram. The residents are delighted to find Lord Vinayaka on the streets of Brahmma Desam, the revival of which is solely attributed to Raj Kumar Bhattar and his commitment to continue the services at the temple that his forefathers had so devotionally carried out for over a 100 years.

It is past 9 pm when the Lord returns to the temple and the winding down takes another hour for Raj Kumar Bhattar. He goes back just after 10pm fully satisfied that he has managed to revived yet another historical utsavam.

The big task before him, though, is to help restore the physical infrastructure at the temple- there are many issues on this front including the wearing off of historical drawings (as seen in the photo above) and then revive the Panguni Brahmotsavam that has not been held for five decades. He is hopeful that this will happen someday in his lifetime.

It is thanks to the efforts of such devotionally committed priests that ancient temples with legendary tales have survived testing times, when the traditional residents have all made their way to cities seeking greener pastures.