Srirangam Namperumal Maasi Garuda Sevai 2024

It is just after 11.30am on Thursday (Feb 15) morning and Thathachariar Nandakumar (husband of renowned writer Prema Nandakumar), a long-time resident of South Chitrai Street, is delighted with the presence of Namperumal at his huge Thoppu west of Srirangam.  

The entire area beyond Thiruvadi street was full of mango and coconut trees running into several hundreds. Till the end of the previous century, there were just a few donors for this procession from the Ranganathaswamy temple to the Thathachariar Thoppu. Namperumal, the utsava deity, made his way on a morning procession on this fourth day of the Maasi Theppotsavam in two hours with very minimal stops.

Nandakumar told this writer on Thursday that it was his grandfather, MS Raghunath, who  gave  a piece of this huge grove to the Municipality a century ago for them to create a path for Namperumal to make his way through the coconut and mango trees to the Kasukkadai Chettiar Asthana Mandapam inside the Thathachariar Thoppu. Hence when Namperumal makes his way to this location on the fourth day of the Theppotsavam in Maasi, it is a moment for Nandakumar’s family to reminisce about the glorious days from the past. 

Till four decades ago, there were hardly any mandagapadis on this morning trip on a palanquin but with the development of huge apartments west of Srirangam, the stopovers of Namperumal have increased manifold.

Starting at 6.30am on Thursday, as has been the historical practice during the Thai and Maasi utsavams, Namperumal made his way around the four Uthira Streets before heading towards the Thathachariar Thoppu via the towering Raja Gopuram in the South.

Till the 1980s, there were neither apartments on this stretch nor large number of donors for these stopovers. But on this morning, Namperumal went to almost each of the large apartments in Raghavendrapuram and then on the Moolai Thoppu street. It was a challenging time for the large contingent of Sripatham personnel including the Vethal team for they had to shoulder Namperumal for five hours without a break. At each of these apartments, that have come up over the last decade or two, huge number of devotees had darshan of Namperumal presenting fruits and vegetables. 

The manifold increase in the mandagapadis meant that Maniam Sridharan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2019/03/srirangam-temple-time-keeper.html) had a list in his hand with details of each of the stopovers on this morning. From a two-hour procession, this has now expanded to five hours and from a couple of mandagapadis, today there are close to 30 stops from the temple to Thathachariar Thoppu.At each mandagapadi, Thaligai from the temple madapalli was presented to Namperumal. He recalls the days from his teenage years when it was a pretty quick procession on the fourth morning of this utsavam “There were no mandagapadis like now in those decades. I myself have carried Thaligai from the Madapalli to the Thoppu and was paid Rs. 5 as Sambhavanai for my service four decades ago.”

It is just after 3pm and Nandakumar makes his way to the Kasukkadai Chettiar mandapam in the middle of his Thoppu along with his Scientist son Raja (who has been a Scientist in the UK for 15 years) and his relatives for the Ubayadarar darshan and mariyathai. Through the afternoon, scores of devotees from Srirangam made their way to the mandapam to have a once in a year darshan at this thoppu. 

The Silver Garuda Vahana arrives at the Thoppu just before 4pm. While the archakas are decorating Namperumal and Garuda at the mandapam, police personnel gathered in good numbers at the entrance gate. There is not a space for anyone to move around the Kasukkadai Chettiar Mandapam as devotees wait eagerly to find out the colour of the attire of Namperumal and Garuda on this special Maasi evening in Srirangam. Prolific temple writer Prema Nandakumar has had health challenges in recent times but for decades she has always made  her way to this Thoppu for a darshan of Namperumal atop the Silver Garuda Vahana. 

Even as the screen opens, video cameras and phone cameras raise for a first shot of the Garuda Sevai of Namperumal. Through the evening, the clicks continue unabated. There are discussions among the devotees of the blue vastram that Garuda is sporting on the evening and the jewels of Namperumal and his decoration. Even as the Sun is setting in the west, Namperumal makes his way out of the Thathachariar Thoppu on to the Moolai Thoppu Veethi that now houses the Srirangam Munsif Court and the office of the Electricity Board. Devotees continued to swarm in large numbers on this street.

It is the one big evening ahead of the Maasi Theppam when devotees throng all along on this three hour evening procession from Thathachariar Thoppu to the Vahana Mandapam inside the Ranganathaswamy temple. A good number of devotees stay back for the pallakku procession to the Gayathri Mandapam and the Padi Etra Sevai just after 9.30pm. There is a certain delight in the faces of the devotees after having had darshan of Namperumal atop the Garuda Vahana and they head back home discussing the attire of Namperumal, the special steps of the Sri Patham, who did a commendable job through the 8 hour processions (5hours in the morning and 3hours in the evening) and also wondering as to how mangoes would turn up this summer at the Thathachariar Thoppu with very little rain in Srirangam in 2023.

Theppam will take place on Monday (Feb 19) evening.