All is set for the chariot festival of the Sri Brihadeeswarar temple (Big Temple) here on Monday. This is the first time in a century that the chariot festival is being conducted in two successive years.
Due to some Herculean efforts by a cross section of society and the district administration, the temple chariot was readied last year in response to yearning of the devout that car festival was never held in the city in over 100 years.
The new chariot was crafted at a cost of Rs. 37 lakh and after a trial run, the actual festival was held last year with great fanfare to the merriment of all. Now, as part of the ongoing Chitrai Brahmotsavam of the Big Temple, arrangements have been made for the conduct of the car festival on Monday.
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The Chitrai Brahmotsavam commenced with the Dwajarohanam on April 4 and would go on till April 21. On Monday, the processional deities of the shrine Sri Tyagarajar and Sri Periyanayaki Amman along with other deities will arrive at the temple car base on West Main Street at 5.30 a.m. and the devotees would start drawing the temple car by 6 a.m.
The main temple chariot along with the smaller cars with deities such as Vinayakar, Subrahmanyar, Panchamurthys would go around the four main streets of the city - West Main Street, North Main Streeet, East Main Street and South Main Street - from morning to afternoon.
The temple and district administrations have identified 14 places on the four main streets for the devotees to offer worship and prasadam. The places are Sri Sandhu Mariamman temple, Sri Konganeswarar temple, Sri Moolai Anjaneyar temple, Pillyar temple on the North Main Street, Sri Rathnapureeswarar temple, Sri Gurukula Sanjeevi temple, Kodimarathu Moolai, Vitoba temple, Sri Manikarnikeswarar temple, Sri Varadaraja Perumal temple, Sri Kaliyuga Venkatesa Perumal temple, Sri Kamala Rathna Vinayakar temple, Sri Kasi Viswanathar temple and Sri Kaliamman temple on the South Main Street.
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The temple chariot will be halted at those places for the benefit of devotees to offer propitiation and prasadam. The district administration has declared a local holiday for Thanjavur district on account of the event.