Saivite devotees are likely to be up through the night on March 1 to celebrate Maha Sivarathri. Different temples in Mylapore are making plans to celebrate in their own way.
At Sri Karaneeswarar Temple, there will be a special alankaram for each of the four Kalams starting at 9pm on Tuesday (March 1) night.
Shanmugha gurukal said that a speciality of the celebrations is the differentiated alankaram for each of the Kaalams and that this will include manjal alankaram, pachai pattu alankaram and vellai pattu alankaram.
At Sri Valleeswarar Temple, the four kaalam abhisekam will start at midnight on Tuesday and run up to 6 am on March 2 morning.
At Sri Kapaleeswarar Temple, the first of the four kaalams will start after 11.30pm on Tuesday night and go up to 6 am on Wednesday morning. Kapali Vaidhyanathan gurukal, one of the hereditary priests said that the artha jaama pooja (which usually takes place at 9pm every day) will take place on Wednesday morning after the four kaala abhisekam is completed.
Away from the temple complex, a 12-hour non-stop cultural programme is being organised at the P S School playground from 6pm on Tuesday evening to 6 am on Wednesday morning.
Currently, there are no restrictions on devotees’ entry into temples and they can have darshan of the night-long abhisekam in all these temples. Typically several thousands of devotees throng Sri Kapaleeswarar and other Shiva temples in Mylapore on the occasion of Maha Sivarathri.
- Report by S. Prabhu
