Sri Rama Navami - Celebration in Thiruchendurai

Apr. 14, 2008 is a very important day for the Tiruchendurai village. It is Sri Rama Navami, and the village celebrates for ten days commencing from this morning, with bhajans in the morning and night every day culminating in SITA KALYANAM and Anchaneya utsavam.

Rama was born on a Chaitra Sukla Paksha Navami day, in Star Punarvasu and the countrymen celebrate this auspicious day two ways – as a Garbotsava commencing nine days before, and as Jananaotsava commencing on the Navami day.. Jeeyapuram celebrates this day as Jananotsava.

The villagers take turns to share this great event, and absorb all expenses for a given day (this is called mandagappadi) and sometimes three or four families join together to absorb expense for a day in a ‘samashti’ way!

The morning Bhajan starts with ‘Narayana Namaavalis’ and continue with ‘Thodaya Mangalam’ with dhyana slokas in between keerthanas, on to Guru dhyanam and Ashtapathi songs of Shri Jaya Deva. The day bhajan ends with ‘poojopacharam’ to the Bhagwan with the song ‘Aayaahi Maadhava Maadhavaa’ followed by deepa aaraadhana.

The night bhajans include songs from Krishna Leela Tharangini , after the ashtapathi song, and then follows various devotional songs composed by Bhadrachala Ramadas, Purandaradasa, Sadasiva Brahmendra, Thyagaraja, Annamayya, Muthu Thandavar, Gopala Krishna Bharathi, Oothukkadu Venkatakavi et al.

Then comes the most important event of the night – the ‘Divya Nama Sankeerthanam’ or ‘Jagannatha/Deepa Pradakshinam -- A five faced lamp “Kuthu Vilakku” is centrally placed, invocative poojas done to the lamp, and the Bhagavathas then go around the lamp singing namavalis, keerthans, and other devotional songs.. this Sankeerthanam goes on for about two hours, when all the bhagavathas sit around the lamp and sing the “Geetha Govinda” followed by Rasakrita, Kolattam and Kummi etc.

Though it is said that Rama married Sita in the month of Margazhira (Nov.- Dec.) the devotees always celebrate Sita Kalyanam at the end of the Sri Rama Navami bhajans.
And Tiruchendurai village has been following this tradition for over three centuries now.

Police Narayana Iyer, the doyen of our bhajana sampradhaya had mentioned that our Paththadhi is an ancient one, and has taken after the Marudhanalloor one. He was ably assisted in the Bhajans by Swami Dikshithar, T.M. Krishnaswamy, T.M. Vaidyanathan, Ramanathan who also doubled as archaka of the reigning deity during the bhajans, T.S. Kuppuswamy and participants from outside the village e.g. Ramamurthy from Tiruchi, and Gopalan from Umayalpuram.



On the Sita Kalyanam day, the Bhagvathas go on ‘uncha vrithy’ in the morning around all streets of the village, singing devotional songs and namavalis. At the end of the unchavrithy, the ladies of the village assemble at the house of Ramanathan – it was a divine gesture to that family, I guess – with all the ‘seer varisai’ Manjal, Kumkumam, Sobhanakshadhai, coconuts, different fruits, betel leaves, sandal paste, sugar plain and the diamond variety (kalkandu), decorated cones of ‘paruppu thengai’, sweets including ‘thirattuppal’, silk dhothies, and sarees …. The ladies carry an item each and start in a procession from that house to the Perumal Koil singing all the way ‘Gowri Kalyaana vaibhogame and Seetha kalyaana vaibhogame’ ….. on reaching the temple, the seer varisais are placed before the deity with devotional songs.

The Bhagavathas now perform ‘Kotnothsavam’ (Muthu Kuththudhal – pounding of rice and gold) -- a mortar decorated with kolam and semmann is placed in front of the deity and the gathered rice, and a sheet of gold, or a gold ring is dropped into the mortar -- the bhagavathas then take the wooden stick (ulakkai) and start pounding the rice in the mortar singing all through. At the end of the pounding, the pounded rice and gold are taken out and reverently placed before the lord, while the bhagvathas dance with the ulakkai for some time.

The Kalyanam proper commences, with the presentation of the ‘seers’ and the ‘vasthrams’ and then with pronouncements of the ‘choornikas’ describing the family lineage of the bride and groom. The ‘pravarams’ of Rama – Yajurveda shakathyayine …..Suryavamsa pavanaya, Shrimath Ikshvahu vamsodhbhavasya sri napaga maharaja varmmano naphthre sri aja maharaja varmmana: pouthraya, sri dasaratha maharaja varmmana: puthraya Sri Ramachandra varmmane sakshath Srimad Narayana swaroopaya varaya:

For the bride Sita it is “yajurveda shakathyayineem ….. nimivamsodhbhavasya sri swarnaroma maharaja varmmano naphthreem, sri hrasvaroma maharaja varmmana: pouthreem sri janakamaharaja varmana: sankalpa dhanayamboo sambootham sita namneem sakshaath shri lakshmi swaroopineem imam kanyam vruneemahe:

The Kanyadanam itself follows next with the famous sloka ‘Iyam Sita mama sudha sahadharmasaridhava: with the bhagavathas and all villagers showering the flowers and rendering of all instrumental music heralding the divine event ..

After the event villagers participate in a grand lunch at the nearby Judge’s house – the expenses of the marriage and the lunch etc. are shared by all the villagers and other devotees and the Bhakta Sabha takes the responsibility of collecting contributions from resident villagers, and those villagers who are away in other cities in India, and abroad.

The program for the night starts with the procession of the decorated pictures (Thanjavur paintings) of Sri Rama and Sita, around the streets of the village with bhajans, and veda goshas and on return of the procession, the Bhajanotsavam begins.

The routine is that of the daily bhajans and ‘divya nama sankeerthanam’ and the deepam is returned to the sanctum by the side of the deity and the Bhagavathas continue with ‘vasantha kelikkai’ and ‘bavvalimpu’ a form of ‘dolothsavam’.

Two bhagavathas acting as sakhis (maids of Sita) come dancing around the hall – they are on a mission to request the Lord to come and be with the ‘Nayika’ – the sakhis go around the Nandavanam (flower gardens) describing the flowers and gathering them to be offered to the Lord. They present the gathered flowers to the Lord, sprinkle rosewater, sandalwood paste and flower petals and invite him to the bride’s chamber. The sakhis perform ‘abhinaya’, sing songs, and dance, kolattam and kummi etc. The Bavvalimpu comes after the vasantha kelikkai,with the divine couple seated – when milk, sweets, fruits, are all offered to them. The curtain is then drawn and lullabies are sung to make them sleep. The popular Sakhis of yesteryears were T.M.Krishnaswamy and S. Ramamurthy from Tiruchi.

After this silence is observed for a while – then the bhagavathas go around the four sides East, South, West and North -- offering ‘security’ – prakara rakshanam…

And when it is dawn the devotees sing songs in the raga ‘Bhoopalam’ gently waking the divine couple – a karpoora harathi is offered -- A konangi (clown – usually Ramaswamy from a nearby village) offers his pooja and mega meal to the children there – the Bhagavathas then sing a keerthanam of Arunachala Kavirayar in bhoopalam the last stanzas of which are certain to bring tears in the eyes for all those listening –

Theeaiyum Pizhai sonna vaayaiyum vadavaichchen
Theeaiyum sudum IVAL prathapam!
Vaai puLiththadho Maangai puLiththadho endru
Manathil eNNinaalum vehu paapam – Rama Rama

Izhukkaagiya ponnaip pudaththil vaitheduppaargal
Ivalukkundo sollai vidhdhiyaasam!
Azhukkillath thangaththaip pudaththil vaitheduththayae
Ayya Unakkumundo mathi mosam!! - Rama Rama

(Kavi talks about the agni pravesam of Sita after she is liberated from imprisonment in Lanka which aspect has been debated all the while! Only when there are some impurities in the metal people used to purify the gold by fire, but you have placed into the fire a woman the purest of the pure – have you lost your mind Rama? )

After the song and mangalam, the Kalyana mahotsavam comes to an end, with the distribution of ‘thirattuppal’ as a special prasadam.

As a sequel to the Kalyanam, devotees celebrate the following day as “Anchaneya Utsavam’ with a bhajan glorifying the true disciple of Rama – and it is then parting of all assembled villagers and other visitors with a soulful ‘till we meet the next year’

The tradition continues and after the demise of the elders in the village, the younger generation took over the activity – Muthanna, T.K. Balu, Nagarajan, Ramakrishnan, T.M. Srinivasan, Suresh and Balu (Muthanna’s son)… Krishnamurthy of our village who was popular with the Panduranga Bhajan mandali at Tiruvallikkeni participated with vigour for a couple of days at the Bhajan.. And there will be more youngsters to come forward in the future and carry on the tradition and be blessed by the Lord.

(thanks to TMS, Jayaraman, TK Balu, publications of Gurudasan T.S.Krishnamurthy, and others for their contribution towards this article)

- Sethuraman

Our special thanks to Thiru Sethuraman for preparing and sending this beautiful article and we also would like to thank him for his continuous support for the development of this site.

The Rama Pattabishekam portrait attached in this article was taken from Sri Ratnagiriswarar Temple. We also would like to thank Sri Ratnagiriswarar Temple and the temple officials.