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‘Tirumanjanam’ performed with gaiety
In connection with the annual Brahmotsavams of Lord Venkateswara, which is scheduled from October 3 to 11, the traditional temple cleansing festival ‘Koil Alwar Tirumanjanam’ was performed with religious pomp at Tirumala on Tuesday.
Tirumala: In connection with the annual Brahmotsavams of Lord Venkateswara, which is scheduled from October 3 to 11, the traditional temple cleansing festival ‘Koil Alwar Tirumanjanam’ was performed with religious pomp at Tirumala on Tuesday.
In the jargon of Agama, the purification ritual is significant, thus the unique fete is known as ‘Koil Alwar Tirumanjanam’ which means cleansing of temple by devotees. This fete was conducted not only in the sanctum sanctorum, but also to the roofs, walls, pillars and puja utensils of the main shrine, sub-temples were also cleansed with a specially made sacred paste.
Another interesting feature of this fete is that the presiding deity and Bhoga Srinivasa Murthy idol were covered with a specially made cloth ‘Malaigudaram’ to prevent dust, soot and water while cleansing.
The idols of other deities and puja vessels were brought outside the sanctum near Ghanta Mandapam and cleansed thoroughly.
Since this fete is performed only four times in a year before annual Brahmotsavams, Vaikuntha Ekadasi, Ugadi and Anivara Asthanam, the temple staff took part in the cleansing fete with enthusiasm.
After cleaning with water, an aromatic paste made out of sandalwood, camphor, turmeric, vermillion, a special root called kicchiligadda was smeared to walls, roofs of the temple, which not only emits wonderful aroma, but also acts as a disinfectant.
After the completion of the cleaning activity, all the deities, puja vessels are brought back to the sanctum sanctorum and the veil on main deity and Bhoga Srinivasa Murthy is removed. Special neivedyam and aarti were offered by the archakas amidst chanting of Vedic hymns.
This massive cleaning exercise took place between 6 am and 10 am after which the devotees were allowed for darshan after the completion of the fete.
TTD chairman Dr Ch Krishnamurthy, TTD executive officer Dr D Sambasiva Rao, Tirumala JEO KS Sreenivas Raju, board members AV Ramana, J Sekhar, Dr Hariprasad, DP Anantha, Sampath Ravinarayana, G Bhanuprakash Reddy and others altook part in this fete.
