Visit Thirupparankundram Temple once at least, must watch 'mahadeepam'
Do you know of Thirupparankundram Temple? Well, this question is to the Hindus of north, west and east India. The question is being asked since the adherents of this extensive and noble religion are hardy aware of the Hindu citadels scattered throughout India. Well, the same is also true for south Indian Hindus; many of them will surely get bemused if they are asked of the famous “Kamakhya Temple” in Assam.
Thirupparankundram Temple is a rock-cut temple of Lord Subramanya, situated at a distance of 8 km from Madurai. It is one of the holy abodes of Lord Murugan and is exceedingly famous for ‘mahadeepam’. What is ‘mahadeepam’ then?
Well, a large number of devotees witnessed the grand spectacle of lighting of the ‘mahadeepam’ atop the Subramanya Swamy Temple at Tirupparankundram on Tuesday evening on the occasion of ‘Karthigai Deepam,’ which marks the culmination of the 10-day ‘festival of lamps.’ Have you got the meaning? The occasion got new heights on account of the presence of Bhattars (temple priests) who assembled around the ‘deepam’, around which an altar was erected, and went on chanting the Holy Vedic mantras. The deepam was lighted at 6.05 p.m.The dignitaries presented on the occasion included P. Balasubramanian, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Madurai Range), M. Vijayaraghavan, Chairman, Board of Trustees for the Temple, other trustees like V.V. Manickam Pillai, S. Kaliappan, C. Chinnammal, and S. Alagarsamy, Executive Officer of the temple.
The event evoked strong emotions and hence, devotees thronged the temple so as to perceive special abhishekams performed to the presiding divinity. Shortly after, the people residing around the temple lighted deepams in their houses.
It is to be noted that Tuesday was ‘pournami’ (Full Moon) day, the entire temple and the town were luminous with lighted lamps, most of these were small clay lamps or ‘agal vilakku,’ traditional ‘kuthuvilakku,’ small pots made of aluminum foil and wax, and moonshine.
Well, it has to be mentioned that the event passed off peacefully thanks to highly structured security arrangements by the temple authority.
