A sizeable crowd gathered in front of the Navarathri Mandapam at the Sri Kapali Temple at 8pm on Tuesday evening for the start of the three day Pon Oonjal festival.
Following a procession of Kapaleeswarar and Karpagambal within the temple complex, there was a presentation of the Vedas and then the Thiruvempavai recital by the two Othuvars.
This was followed by a Mukha Veena presentation. The Sripatham personnel presented a voyali to the slow tunes of Mathalam vidwan Balasubramaniam.
After Ambal and Swami were stationed in the Oonjal opposite to each other, Othuvar Sathgurunathan presented Manickavachakar’s Pon Oonjal songs of Utharakosamangai.
Former HR & CE JC (Thiruppani) Kavitha visited the Pon Oonjal utsavam on this first evening and listened to the devotional verses of the Othuvar.
She said that she was visiting the temple after ten years and wanted to also have darshan of Singaravellar on this Tuesday.
The Pon Oonjal utsavam continues on Wednesday evening. The Utsavam concludes on Thursday with the Othuvars presenting the entire Thiruvempavai as well as the Pon Oonjal verses.
- Report, photo: S. Prabhu
