It’s a luminous evening at Tiruparankundram on the first day of the holy month Karthigai as the setting sun casts a magical orange glow over the town. From atop the rocky hillock, the view is a knotty maze of houses, streets, shops, temple spires, mobile phone towers and lamp posts. Thousands of men, women and children strolling along the girivalam path seem like ants moving in a row. Down the hill, there’s noise, jollity and celebration.
And up here, Arumugam is busy getting tins of ghee to the tower where a visual spectacle is waiting to happen. For the past two decades, it has been Arumugam’s responsibility or rather ‘god-gifted privilege’ as he frames it, to transport the items needed to light the Karthigai Mahadeepam, to the hill top. Along with his son Parthasarathy and few relatives, he carries a four-feet copper vessel, 10 tins of ghee, a number of wooden logs, giant ropes, mud pots and an array of puja materials to the hill. He also builds the wooden scaffolding to enable people reach the small tower called Om mandapam or the Uchi Pillayar Koil at 200 feet, where the lamp is lit. He applies a fresh coat of paint on the tower too. “Our family have been the designated watchmen for the temple since the times of the kings. And before the mahadeepam was started, I used to do errand jobs in the temple,” says the 60-year-old. “Every Karthigai, I start collecting the materials a week before the main festival and mobilise men to help me carry them. We make three trips and take turns.” A ritualistic puja is done before the start and the paraphernalia is paraded through the streets of the temple town with much pomp and show. It takes the group of men three hours to walk up the half-a-kilometre stretch carrying all the items on their back.
The practice of lighting the Mahadeepam atop the hill – the way it is done in Tiruvannamalai -- started in 1994. Before that, only a small ghee lamp was lit. “It is the biggest mahadeepam in the district,” informs R.Pachaiappan, Deputy Commissioner, Sri Subramaniya Swamy Temple, Tiruparankundram.
The credit for lighting the lamp goes to the trio from Tiruvannamalai -- Anand, Srinivasan and Baskar. They come to Madurai every Karthigai and replicate the Tiruvannamalai deepam here.
“At Tiruvannamalai, the lamp is six feet tall, here it is three feet,” says Anand, a wholesale merchant. The mahadeepam in Tiruvannamalai is lit at a height of 2,668 feet and glows continuously for 24 hours. It is relit every day for 11 days.
Srinivasan narrates a legend about the lamp lighting ceremony that’s been in circulation for centuries. It is believed the lamp was first lit by Goddess Parvathi to worship Lord Shiva in the form of fire. Says Srinivasan, “We believe that the goddess belongs to our fishing community known as ‘Parvatharaja Kulam’ and we consider ourselves the descendants of Parvatha Raja (Mountain king). Hence the mahadeepam is always lit on a mountain top and people throng to see it as it’s supposed to wash off one’s sins.”
“The light can be seen from a radius of six kilometres around Tiruparankundram. Even today, the villagers around Nagamalai light the clay lamps in their homes only after catching a glimpse of the mahadeepam,” informs Arumugam.
Baskar explains: “A long cotton cloth is wrapped around wooden logs and is inserted into a huge pot filled with ghee. This ensures continuous supply of fuel and the lamp glows through the night.”
Before taking it to the hill top, 120 metres of ghada cotton cloth is soaked in 120 litres of ghee overnight. Over 200 litres of ghee is poured into a copper vessel and the cloth is kept inside and hanging outside the container. A dozen mud pots are neatly arranged over the mouth of the container to prevent the ghee from overflowing. A wooden log is kept in the middle to support the pots. The excess cloth hanging outside the vessel is draped and tied to the log to form a three-foot wick. Big camphor crystals called ‘katti soodam’ are used to illuminate the mahadeepam. The heat of the lamp can be felt up to a distance of 30 feet.
“It takes four hours to complete the procedure,” points out Baskar. The Mahadeepam was lit at 6.10 p.m. sharp amidst the chimes of the temple bell and blowing of the conch. A privileged few watched it from a close distance while thousands below raised folded hands and chanted ‘Arohara’ in veneration. The abode of Lord Muruga lit up in the joy of Karthigai.
