Ramanathapuram
Thousands of people from various parts of the country thronged the Agni theertham sea in front of the Sri Ramanathaswamy temple in Rameswaram on Monday to pay obeisance to their ancestors on the occasion of ‘Thai amavasya’, an auspicious day, also hailed as ‘Mahodaya punyakalam’.
Right from early morning, people made a beeline to the Agni theertham seashore and two other sacred seashores in the district – Sethukarai sea, near the Adi Jagannatha Perumal temple at Thirupullani and the Navapashanam sea temple in Devipattinam to perform ‘tharpanam’, pay respects to their forefathers and seek their blessings.
As this year’s ‘Thai amavasya’ was also hailed as ‘mahodaya amavasya’ and it was taking place after several years, a large number of people visited the seashores to perform ‘tharpanam’. The crowd was almost double, compared to last year, temple authorities and priests said.
At the agni theertham sea in Rameswaram, Lord Ramar, accompanied by ‘panchamoorthy’ performed ‘theerthavari’ till 5 30 p.m. before returning to the temple. In the evening, they were taken out on a silver car procession around the temple. The temple was opened at 4 30 a.m. and kept open throughout the day for the people to offer worship.
The district police made elaborate security arrangements in Rameswaram and other places. The event passed off without any untoward incident, Superintendent of Police Omprakash Meena said.
