Rituals for kumbhabishekam of Sri Arunachaleswarar temple began here with Ganapathy homam on Saturday.
The kumbhabishekam is to be held on February 6. The renovation work began in January 2015 with the help of donors. A crack found in the stone beam of base of 217-feet-high Rajagopuram and other minor cracks found in the gopuram were fixed using anchor assemblies. Traditional ash colour paint was applied on all nine gopurams of the temple.
A huge pundal has been erected to house 108 yaga kundams meant to perform 12 kala homams which will begin on January 31.
“The temple administration has arranged sprinklers to spray holy water on devotees during kumbhabishekam. Around 20 huge LED screens have been placed inside the temple and in important places of the town, including bus stand, to enable the devotees to see the live streaming of kumbhabishekam ritual,” said J. Hari Priya, Joint Commissioner/ Executive Officer of the temple.
As a prelude to the festival Durgai Amman Utsavam and Pidari Amman Utsavam were held in the respective temples in the town on Thursday and Friday.
Though huge crowd is expected to arrive in Tiruvannamalai on February 6, only a small fraction could be allowed into the temple.
The police are planning security arrangements to manage the crowd.
