Kapali Panguni Utsavam Photo Menace

As early as June 2016, this section had featured a story on the mobile menace at the Parthasarathy Perumal temple during the Narasimha Brahmotsavam. Exactly a couple of years later, in 2018, this section had also welcomed the move to ban mobile phones inside the Meenakshi Amman temple in Madurai. It is now seven years since that photo menace story. Unfortunately, things have only worsened at temples in Tamil Nadu. 

After a couple of years of subdued Utsavam where people, especially senior citizens, were skeptical of venturing out in large numbers because of the Pandemic, this year at the Panguni Utsavam at Kapaleeswarar temple, the Adikaara Nandi and Rishabha Vahanam processions have attracted huge crowds with devotees lining up the entire Sannidhi street till the Chariot. While the devotional wave is back with renewed vigour, the issue of photo menace presented its ugly face once again this week at these popular processions.

With phones becoming ‘smarter’, holding a phone high over the head and clicking photo and video shots of Kapaleeswarar has become a new fad. The first activity at each of the processions on the first five days of the Panguni Utsavam this week has been for the mobile camera to raise high for that exclusive first click, mostly at the cost of darshan for many of the devotees at the back row. 

With the proliferation of camera phones, it has now become a common practice for devotees to take photographs at all places inside the temple including of the Deepaarathanai. Within a few minutes, these exclusive photo shots are circulated all over the world via social media platforms. The hands that rose to take such shots are now serving as a great hindrance to devotees especially at important sacred moments. 

This has become a sour point for many devotees at this festival, though increasingly they are becoming a minority. On Friday evening, at the start of the Naga Vahana procession in front of the Raja Gopuram, there were fervent shouts from senior citizens to get the devotees to down their phones below the head but it fell on deaf ears and it became difficult for these devotees to have a clear darshan of the Lord during the Voyali, a special performance by the Sripatham Personnel much to their disappointment.

S Aparna, a devotee at this festival for the last 15 years, is upset that the Naga Dance that devotees had become so used to on the fourth evening in front of the Raja Gopuram has been missing for a few years now more because of the 'devotee menace' (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2022/03/kapali-devotee-aparna-panguni-utsavam.html). In the past, it had been a performance by the Sripatham that devotees specifically came to watch.

Though there is a dramatic uptick in devotee numbers in temples across the big temples in TN, it just seems that worship is heading in the wrong direction. Not so long ago, the typical comment from a mother was to get the child to invoke the blessings of the Lord with folded hands. But now,  the message is completely different - Young children are being encouraged to take video shots that is then immediately posted on the social media.

Interestingly even the Shivachariar's own display photo is often of him performing the Deeparaathanai, such is the new trend!!!

Better access now to sleeker phones with good cameras has led to intense competition among the devotees who are now vying with each other to showcase their photography and videography skills than enjoying Kapaleesawarar's beautiful alankaram and the presentation of the Voyali on the Sannidhi Street.

The instant drive to showcasing their presence at the festival is taking people away from the essence of  devotion. There is a new found eagerness to show that they belong to this new modern world of hi-tech phones. If the hands are always in possession of a camera phone, where is the possibility of the folded hands before the Lord? 

One of the service personnel at the temple who has been performing here for three decades said that the over enthusiasm with gadgets at this utsavam will lead towards frustration and hold people back from visiting the utsavam in the future. The utsavam is about devotion and not photography, he said. Even if they are using the mobile cameras, they will have to do so in restrained manner without disturbing the other devotees. And there lies the big challenge.

During the sacred Thevaram presentation of the Othuvars, some of whom had come in all the way from Vriddachalam, Sankaran Koil, Thoothukudi and Sirkazhi, as part of the Ekantha Sevai procession inside the temple early on Sunday morning, devotees who turned up in good numbers after the night long Rishabha Vahana procession that lasted 9hours, once again found it challenging to either have a darshan of Kapaleeswarar or take a look at the artistes who were singing praise of the Lord in special musical tones.

Kapaleeswarar Temple and the four Mada streets are not mere public places that people have a complete right over. There is certain sanctity to it especially during the procession and even more so during this annual Panguni Utsavam when the Lord makes his way on the large vahanams. There is an unwritten devotional code of conduct that one needs to adhere to when one is near the Divine Couple but such codes are becoming a thing of the past much sooner than we can imagine.

It is unlikely this trend of capturing the first exclusive photo will be reversed. For those devotees, who experienced Kapali in a different way in the years gone by have to first come to terms with this new trend and accept this as the norm for the future and accordingly place their expectations at all the Utsavams in the future, more so during the Panguni Utsavam.

Of course, they can take some solace from the recent order of the Madurai High Court that directed a ban on the use of mobile phones inside TN temples. Like the implementation at the Meenakshi Amman temple in Madurai, a strict enforcement of the ban may be the sought after solution for the traditional devotees who are finding the photo menace a difficult norm to accept.

Until then, the YouTube and Facebook 'Likes' may rule the roost at Temple Utsavams.