This 96 year old lady is looking forward to the midnight Rishabham next Wednesday
This section has featured many stories in the last few years on the devotees’ love for Kapaleeswarar and their attachment to the annual Panguni Utsavam (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/04/kapali-panguni-utsavam.html) and how each of them play a part in it. There are just a few days to go for this year's utsavam, and the grand processions from the decades gone by are already playing out in the mind of this 96 year old devotee.
Hailing from Kadaladi village near Pozhur (Vandavasi), K. Rajeswari has been present at the Panguni Utsavam for close to six decades. It is a hot Tuesday (March 12) morning at the Kapaleeswarar temple but unmindful of the heat she has made her way to each of the Sannidhis and is walking around the prakara with her son VK Manoharan, a retired Sanskrit teacher. Just 48 hours earlier, devotees thronged in large numbers on Sunday morning to carry the 1000 Paal Kudam to the Kola Villi Amman temple. This is an event that she fondly remembers from her early years in Mylapore.
To the temple before 5am on the Adikaara Nandi morning
Rajeswari is all excited as she recalls to this writer her experiences at the Panguni Utsavam dating back to the late 1960s and early 70s “I would wake very early on the third morning and reach the temple well before 5am for the start of the Adikaara Nandi procession. There were three specific locations that I would particularly stand and have darshan – the deeparathanai at Yaaga Salai, the Gopura Vaasal and the 16 pillar mandapam. These are three points where I never missed having a close darshan during this utsavam.”
Rishabham - A Lifetime favourite
Rishabham (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2022/03/kapali-devotee-aparna-panguni-utsavam.html), like for most other Kapali devotees, has been a lifetime favourite for this nonagenarian. “Even as the procession started inside the temple, there would be big fire crackers that would go on the north mada side of the tank near the Indian Bank. It was a grand display of fire works that all the devotees look forward. And then the Gopura Vaasal Deeparathanai at midnight was the big moment for me as devotees roared with shouts of ‘kapali, kapali’. It was an unforgettable experience to be amidst those hundreds of devotees in front of the Raja Gopuram” says Rajeshwari even as tears roll down her cheeks narrating that most devotional midnight moment of the Panguni Utsavam.
All the way on the Chariot morning
As the Panguni Utsavam moved into the second half, Rajeswari would be present end to end for the Chariot festival pulling the car at the start of the procession on the East Mada street. “It was the one day in the utsavam when devotees congregated from afar to pull the chariot around the four streets. We saw huge crowds on that morning and there would be devotees on the top of house floors to witness the chariot passing by at a slow pace.”
“Being the start of the summer, cucumber, butter milk and paanagam would be distributed and that came as a relief to the devotees.”
The Arubathumoovar
On the Arubathumoovar evening (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2023/04/kapali-panguni-utsavam-2023.html), she recalls having darshan of Lords from different temples in the city. "While we were all excited to have darshan of the 63 Saint Poets, it was also an evening for us to have darshan of swamis from different temples in the city and we heard stories about each of these temples on that evening"Rajeswari tells this writer.
Her husband V. D. Krishnaswamy Sarma, who passed away in the early 1980s, was a school teacher at Vayalamoor, a village near Senji. He was an Upanyasakar and would sit near the Pillayar Sannidhi at the eastern entrance of the Kapaleeswarar Temple presenting historical stories including interesting episodes from the Thiruvachakam. “Once he went to Calcutta to present an upanyasam. A week later, Kripananda Vaariyar too presented one at the same location. When he found a name from the Senji village in that memory book of the organisers, he came back to the village and located Krishnaswamy Sarma.”
Impressed with his contribution to our history and culture, Vaariyar organised Rs. 10 to be sent to him every month by money order. Acknowledging this support, my husband told him ‘Maasam Pathu is ‘Maa Sampathu’ for me bringing out a big laughter in Vaariyar.”
“Later when the sons had grown up and we moved to Madras, my husband went to an upanyasam of Vaariyar at Asthiga Samajam and requested him for the financial support to be stopped. Vaariyar was so impressed with this gesture that he made a public announcement about the contentment of my husband at the end of that upanyasam."
Sandy Prakaras
Son Manoharan says that she likes being in the midst of devotees at this temple. Even though she has to climb two floors at home, she insists on coming to the Kapali temple every day and is already looking forward to the Panguni utsavam. "There was no cement flooring like you have now in those early years and the sandy path around the prakara was soft on the feet in those years. We enjoyed walking around in a pradakshinam.”
One of her sons, Sekar, who passed away in a road accident, was an active voluntary member of the Sripatham team that carried Kapaleeswarar on their shoulders during this utsavam. She misses him badly at this utsavam but the sight of him carrying Kapali is still fresh “Every year, when I am at the procession, I visualise Sekar carrying the Lord around the four streets.”
Come 9pm on Friday evening, it is likely that the longtime Mylaporeans will see this familiar face yet again at the start of the Pillayar procession on the Mooshika Vahanam. It has been 55 glorious years for Rajeswari at the Panguni Utsavam and she just cannot wait for this year’s utsavam to start and the shouts of 'Kapali Kapali' is already ringing in her ears.