This Wednesday evening pradosham at Kapali temple saw devotional engagement back to the good old days
Exactly a year ago, the Kapaleeswarar temple wore a forlorn look around the praraka on the pradosham evening. As part of the Covid protocol following Wave 2, devotees were not allowed inside to have darshan of the pradosham procession.
For over 12 months, it had been a story of devotees standing at Eastern and Western entrances trying to have a glimpse as the pradosha moorthy passed by. This writer had written many stories in Mylapore Times on the devotees' plight ( https://www.mylaporetimes.com/2021/07/devotees-not-to-be-allowed-for-next-pradosham-at-sri-kapali-temple-safety-measure/). It was a devotionally painful experience with them having to listen to the Othuvar's recital from outside the temple.
This Wednesday (Aug 24, 2022) evening was testimony to life having returned to normal and the Pradosham celebrations back to the good old days with devotees packing every corner of the temple. There were around a 1000 devotees to watch the Nandi abhisekam followed by the Procession. The vedic recital too is back with different groups presenting each of the vedas during the three rounds of the procession. There were also those who recited the Thevaram verses.
Othuvar's Thevaram Verses
There was pin drop silence when Othuvar Sathgurunathan presented the sacred verses in front of the alankara mandapam and then the folded hands went up in unison when hereditary priest presented the deepaarathanai. Into the third round of the procession, devotees were treated to a voyali display by the Sripatham Thangis who played to the tunes of asthana vidwan Mohan Dass's Nagaswaram.
The pradosham on this Wednesday evening took devotees back in time to the good old highly devotional days at the Kapaleeswarar Temple. A Vaishnavite said that he had been at the pradosham for two decades and was happy to be back once again after the temple had allowed entry earlier this year to the Pradosham evening .
Kutcheri after every Pradosham
The temple has now added another feature on the pradosham evening. A 90 minutes concert following the pradosham procession will now be an ongoing feature at the temple. Its a series that is being sponsored by the Thakkar of the temple. This evening saw a Mandolin trio present a kutcheri in front of the navarathri mandapam.