The heritage village of Kalpathy plunged into a festive mood with the chariots carrying deities of Siva, Parvathi, Vishnu, Ganapati, and Subramanian beginning to roll through the lanes.
The village is observing nine days of solemn festivities propitiating the deities that guard the heritage site and hundreds of families living there. The fifth day witnessed the confluence of deities past Tuesday midnight at New Kalpathy.
Hundreds of people offered prayers as the chariots carrying Lord Siva, flanked by that of Lord Vishnu and Lord Ganapati, stood on one side and those of Lord Murugan and Lord Ganapati stood on the other side past midnight.
Confluence of deities
“This is the real confluence of the deities guarding our villages. The fifth day has been the most auspicious day for us. And we can’t afford to miss it at any cost,” said Kerala Brahmana Sabha president Karimpuzha Raman, offering prayers to the deities that converged in front of his house at New Kalpathy.
The large chariots will begin rolling through the villages from Thursday in pursuance of the long tradition of the Mayapuram car festival being held in Tamil Nadu.
The culmination of the Kalpathy festival, known by various names as chariot festival, car festival, or car race, will take place on Saturday.
Giant chariots are being prepared at Viswanatha Swami Temple, Manthakkara Mahaganapati Temple, Lakshminarayana Perumal Temple, and Chathapuram Mahaganapati Temple to take the respective deity through the village.
