The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department will soon introduce whole day ‘annadhanam’ at the famous Arulmigu Mariamman Temple in Samayapuram near Tiruchi. The Samayapuram Sri Mariamman temple will become the second major shrine in Tiruchi district to provide annadhanam for the whole day to devotees after Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam.
The move to provide ‘annadhanam’ for the whole day comes in the wake of the announcement made by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Minister P. K. Sekar Babu in the Legislative Assembly. Besides Samayapuram temple, the scheme is to be implemented at the Sri Subramanya Swamy temples at Tiruthani and Tiruchendur.
‘Annadhanam’ was started at the Samayapuram Sri Mariamman temple on March 23, 2002 with 400 devotees being given ‘annadhanam’ every day. With the new scheme all set to take off, the number of devotees to be covered would be more. Infrastructure would be augmented accordingly for implementing the whole day annadhanam scheme at the Samayapuram temple, its Joint Commissioner / Executive Officer Kalyani told The Hindu . The plan was to introduce the scheme at the Samayapuram Sri Mariamman temple from September 17, she added.
Until the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, free food was being served to devotees at the ‘Amavasai’ Mandapam near the temple. However, due to the pandemic, food packets were being distributed to 400 devotees every day. In addition to the Samayapuram temple, food packets were being provided at the two sub temples: Arulmigu Aadhi Mariamman Temple at Inam Samayapuram and Arulmigu Ujjaini Om Kaliamman Temple, Maakalikudi both near Samayapuram.
Meanwhile, banners have been kept at Srirangam informing the public that no payment would be charged from devotees for tonsuring their heads at the Cauvery river bathing ghat in Amma Mandapam and near the Coleroon river bank. This follows an announcement from the State government. The banners have been kept at Kollidam Road.
