Kapali Temple Pushpa Kainkaryam GG Sivakumar

Devotees at the Kapaleeswarar temple have found different ways to engage themselves with the Lord. When S Harini Yogalakshmi moved from Madras to Erode following a transfer, she missed Kapali and took the late night Yercaud express to be on time for the start of the Adikara Nandi procession and on another occasion for the return of the Lord in the morning on the Rishabham (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/04/kapali-panguni-utsavam.html) during the Panguni Utsavam. IT Professional KS Sankar has been leading the crowd management during the Panguni Utasvam, especially on the Arubathumoovar and Chariot days in the last few years (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2023/11/sankar-ks-kapali-festival-crowd.html) . 

It was at the start of the Vasantha Utsavam in 2022 that the former World Bank Consultant, V Ramkumar,  a consultant to the PMO in 2023, began his Theevatti Kainkaryam (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2023/07/kapali-theevatti-pmo-consultant-v.html). Ever since, over the last couple of years, he has expanded this service to other utsavams round the year including the annual Panguni Utsavam.  

And last year, ahead of the Vasantha Utsavam, GG Sivakumar, a long time devotee, kicked off a Kainkaryam of a different kind. When he found that there was a shortage of flower garlands for the deities, he asked the hereditary priests if he could present garlands during the utsavam. Buoyed by the positive response from them, he went about collecting flowers from the wholesale market in Parrys and put together a team of like minded individuals who were interested in knotting the flowers.

Sitting in front of the Yaaga Saalai, the team knotted garlands through the entire period of the long 25 day utsavam. Delighted with their presentation, the hereditary priests asked Sivakumar if he could expand this to a round the year service. Interestingly, the temple trustee too vouched for this and got an official approval for him to continue the service through the year. 

It was also around the same time that PS School teacher Veda began initiating young kids into the Thevaram verses in another corner of the kapali temple(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2023/08/kapali-temple-thevaram-kids.html?m=1). 

Very early on his life, Sivakumar's appa had initiated him into devotion by taking him everyday to the Parthasarathy temple in Thiruvallikeni (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2019/11/manavala-mamuni-utsavam-thiruvallikeni.html).

From a one off initiative, when this exercise became an ongoing and long term one, Sivakumar, who joined hands with his relatives and close friends, to support service personnel at TN temples through the Pandemic period reached out to them again asking them if they would be interested in partnering in this Kainkaryam “Following the Vasantha Utsavam, we began presenting flower garlands every morning at the Swami, Ambal and Singaravellar Sannidhis”, Sivakumar told this writer on a hot afternoon at the Navarathri Mandapam where his team now knots the flowers every evening between 7pm and 9pm.

 “This exercise costs approximately Rs. 70000 every month and my friends and relatives who pooled in money happily agreed to partner on this one as well” says Sivakumar.

Into the second half of 2023, Jayakanthan Shivachariar (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/07/kapaleeswarar-temple-jayakanthan.html) asked Sivakumar if the team could present for the four Kaalams of the Pavitrotsavam. The Pushpa Kainkaryam also expanded to the Naalvar and Naayanmar Utsavams.

47 year old Sivakumar, who runs a recruitment firm in the city, says that while initially during the first few months, he came in every morning to present the garlands knotted the previous evening to the priests in the respective sannidhis, his team member Kumar has taken up this role in recent months. Similarly, another team member Sumathi has taken up the responsibility of coordinating every day with the entire team whose strength has now risen to 35.

During the course of the year, Balaji Gurukal (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2023/04/kapali-temple-balaji-gurukal.html) suggested that they could explore more Sannidhis at the temple and thus the Pushpa Kainkaryam expanded further and now includes Pillayar, Annamalayar, Jagadeeswarar, Saneeswarar, Pazhani Andavar and Vayilar Nayanar Sannidhis, among others. Sivakumar points out that with the expansion to many more sannidhis, the Kainkaryam has become even more interesting “Each of their deities are in different sizes and the team is now required to knot the garland in many different sizes.”

He is particularly happy that the hereditary priests as well as the trustees have presented positive feedback about the way the ladies have gone about the Kainkaryam “Jaya Anna specifically told me that there is very little noise while the ladies are performing this Kainkaryam and they seem to be fully committed to this and asked me to continue this without a break.”

That, Sivakumar says, was very motivating. He is also happy that his team members have found this to be ‘stress buster’ in their everyday lives “There are different challenges that we encounter in our lives every day. For a number of these team members, sitting together in a group and performing this Kainkaryam has relieved them of the stress. Knotting a flower garland is a traditional activity and they seem to be energised at the end of this exercise every evening. Seeing the garland they have knotted draped on the Swami and Ambal has given them a great deal of satisfaction.”

One such devotee is Shivapriya Viswanathan who is pursuing her BS in Data Science at IIT Madras, a large part of which is run through the online model. She is aiming to get into the Fintech world following the completion of this degree. Even as a school student, she had developed great interest in knotting flowers having learned the art from her Thatha Gopalakrishnan, a retired staffer at BSNL and has presented the garlands both at the monthly anusham celebrations of Periyava as well as the annual ten day festival at Kanchipuram for many years. 

"My Thatha would collect flowers from the garden, engage himself in knotting these into a garland and present it to a near pillayar koil every day of the year. He was my inspiration and after he taught me the basics, I became very interested in this Kainkaryam" she told this writer on Monday.

She moved from being a devotee of Marudeeswarar (Thiruvanmiyur) to Kapaleeswarar in mid 2022 after shifting to Mylapore. While she has been on the laptop through the day with her academics, she considers the Pushpa Kainkaryam opportunity that came her way out of the blue as a great blessing "When Sivakumar (Sir) asked me if I would be interested in participating in this, I immediately agreed for I had already done it for many years. Kapali has been my life over the last 18 months or so since the time I moved to Mylapore but I never expected that such a Kainkaryam at the feet of Kapali and Karpagambal would ever come to me and not at such an early stage in my life. Not all get such an opportunity and I grabbed it with both hands when he offered it to me."

She says that these two hours of Pushpa Kainkaryam have been a big devotional break away from academics and that it has been a wonderful experience over the last year to be part of this team where she has learned the finer nuances of this art from the seniors.

Other devotional engagements of Shivapriya include presenting Konnakol (learning from Guru Ghatam Rajaram) at temples and performing at Thyagaraja Aradhana. In the past, she has also presented at the Kapali temple, which has now become very close to her heart.

The annual Panguni Utsavam (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2023/04/kapali-panguni-utsavam-2023.html) is round the corner and Sivakumar has a different kind of Kainkaryam lined up for that as well. Based on the suggestion from Theevatti 'Sanyasi 'Ramkumar, he is hoping that his team will be able to take care of the Kainkaryapakas during and after the daily processions “Through all the days of the utsavam, our pushpa kainkaryam team members are planning to distribute butter milk and water, on the West and North Mada streets, to the service personnel of the temple during the processions and also present curd rice at the end of each of the processions to the service personnel who participated in the procession."

He says that this kainkaryam has also brought together the family members of the team to both support the ladies in this endeavour as well as back them in newer initiatives such as the one that is being planned during the Panguni Utsavam next fortnight. 

The next time one sees a beautiful garland on the Lord, it may be one knotted by this set of volunteers led by Sivakumar. 

For Sivakumar himself, there is a great deal of satisfaction in putting together a team for the Pushpa Kainkaryam and to have grown this to 35 from out of nowhere just under a year ago. He is open to more Kainkaryapakas coming forward to participate in this daily service to the Lord.