Milling crowds and the merriment amiss

05/05/2020, P.A. NARAYANI,MADURAI

Tradition marries technology: A couple who tied the knot at their home in TVS Nagar during the celestial wedding at Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple on Monday. R. Ashok

“For the people of Madurai and nearby towns, the celestial wedding of Lord Sundareswarar and Goddess Meenakshi is like a family function,” says R. Lakshmi, a resident of Kakka Thoppu Street, who has never once missed the wedding in the past 25 years.

“Hundreds of devotees throng Meenakshi temple to witness the wedding, which is the highlight of the annual Chithirai festival. For the people of Madurai, the wedding is an event to renew their relationships and commitments. However, witnessing the wedding through digital platforms, in the wake of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, makes us feel it incomplete. But we are at least grateful that we were able to witness the wedding through digital platforms,” she says.

It was the first time that the celestial wedding took place without any public gathering due to the lockdown. The temple administration had been livestreaming the event on its website for the past few years. This time, the event was livestreamed totally on digital platforms with the inclusion of the temple’s Facebook page and YouTube, and TV channels were not given the live telecast rights.

Shanmuga Thirukumaran, a Tamil teacher who has given running commentary for the event for many years, says that from 1981, the annual event was held on Adi streets, so that hundreds of devotees could witness the wedding. “A huge number of people from nearby villages and towns used to reach Madurai to take part in the wedding. But, this year, the wedding took place at the mandapam inside the temple,” he says.

For L.T. Sanjayan, a trader from Pudhu Mandapam who sells packages containing kungumam, turmeric and the sacred yellow thread, the festival is the time when he does good business. “I have been preparing these packages at home and selling them for the past 30 years. Thousands of women buy these packages and replace the sacred thread that holds the ‘mangalsutra’ with a new one during the celestial wedding. But, due to the lockdown, there are no buyers for the packages that we make ready from March,” he says.

The wedding is incomplete without the ‘kalyana virundhu’ or the wedding feast which was served at Sethupathi Higher School for the past few years, says K.S. Narayanan, Headmaster of the school. “Usually, the feast would be coordinated by Pazhamudir Solai Thiruvarul Murugan Bhaktha Sabhai Trust and would have contributions of vegetables and groceries by hundreds of people. Those who could not contribute would volunteer to cook and serve food for thousands of people. However, this could not happen this year due to the lockdown,” he says.

“But, on the brighter side, we are able to distribute food to the homeless who are suffering due to the lockdown,” says Chamundi Vivekanandan, president of the Trust.