The famous Panguni Uthiram festival at Sri Dhandayuthapani Swamy Temple here in Palani drew a large number of devotees from far and near on Friday.
Chanting ‘Muruga Muruga’ and ‘Vetrivel’ Veeravel’ by the devotees, the car was drawn along the main thoroughfares of the temple town.
The hillock temple, which was illuminated with colorful lights, had earlier in the day witnessed ‘theerthakavadi’ by devotees. At around 4.30 a.m., the presiding deities - Lord Muthukumaraswamy and Goddess Valli Deivanai -were brought in to the Shanmuganadhi. After performing special pujas and ‘arathi,’ the deities were taken in a procession amidst chanting by a large number of devotees.
In the evening, the Car festival, which is the highlight of the Panguni Uthiram celebrations, started at 4.45 p.m. As the devotees and temple staff from the HR and CE department experienced difficulty, the temple elephant ‘Kasturi’ was brought in to give a helping hand.
After a push, the Car moved along the Theradi stretches and finally reached its destination at 6 p.m.
On March 12, the Panguni Uthiram festival began with the hoisting of the holy flag. In the next two days, the HR and CE officials expected huge turnout of devotees and the curtains would come down on March 21 with an arathi and float festival.
A large posse of police personnel were deployed in and around the temple town. DIG of Police (Dindigul Range) Rupesh Kumar Meena, SP V R Srinivasan and other officers supervised the bandobust arrangements.
Devotees from other States including Karnataka said that they were happy to be in the temple town after two years since the pandemic had disabled them from attending the celebrations in person.
EOM
