Special prayers for successful Moon landing

Chennai: Seeking the divine blessings of the Moon God Chandran for the successful landing of India's moon lander Vikram, special prayers will be held at the Chandranaar Temple in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district, an official said.

"We will have a special 'abhishekam' and 'archanai' on Friday evening seeking the divine blessings of Chandran," V Kannan, Manager at the Sri Kailasanathan Temple or the Chandranaar Temple, said.

He said a special pooja was held for the success of Chandrayaan-1 mission before the rocket lifted off in 2008.

"We did not offer any special prayers before July 15 when Chandrayaan-2 was first planned to be launched. Owing to some technical problem the launch was postponed," Kannan said.

"We thought the technical snag may be due to the non-offering of the prayers to the Moon God.

Hence prior to the Chandrayaan-2 launch on July 22, special prayers, `abhishekam' and 'annadhanam' were conducted," Kannan said. While the presiding deity at the temple is Soma (Moon), the main deity is Lord Shiva.