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| Tuesday, 20 July 2004 |
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Mayurapathy Sri Paththirakali Amman Temple's milk pot and chariot festival The Mayurapathy Sri Paththirakali Amman Temple's annual festival (17th year) which commenced on Thursday July 01 will conclude on Tuesday July 27. The milk pot (Paal Kudam) festival which is exclusively meant for women will take place on Wednesday (July 21).
The chariot festival of this temple will be held on Thursday July 22. The Chief Trustee of this temple Pon Vallipuram has made elaborate arrangements to make this milk pot (Paal Kudam) and chariot festival a great success. In Hinduism the Supreme Lord is represented by Maheswara and His powers is represented by His consort Sakthi or Kali. Just as the husband and wife take care of the family, so does Shiva and Sakthi look after the affairs of the universe. Sakthi is the embodiment of powers. She is the supreme power by which the world is made to function. In one of his poems T. S. Eliot has described the predicament of man who with all the progress and success he has made in science and technology finds that "Endless inventions and endless experiments bring us knowledge of the motion, but not of stillness, knowledge of words and not of the word". Lord Shiva without Sakthi is all stillness, silence. It is Sakthi which stirs him to motion and speech. Shiva is the word. It is Sakthi which moves him to words. The union between them is represented by the image of Shiva as Ardhanariswara, half-man and half-woman. Sakthi herself takes different forms. Sometimes she is stern and formidable. Of the many Gods in the Hindu Pantheon none is revered more than Mother Goddess. She is Parvathy, Durgai and Kali. This Mayurapathy Sri Paththirakali Amman Temple which draws thousands of devotees from the city of Colombo and suburbs has grown majestically on account of Pon Vallipuram's deep devotion, untiring and unselfish and dedicated efforts. In fact, Pon Vallipuram, as Chief Trustee of this Temple is rendering a remarkable service to the devotees of this temple with profound love and respect. In fact, during the rule of the Britishers in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in the 19th century, they started a spinning and weaving mills at 'Mayura' place in the city of Colombo. To work in this Mill, the well to do private mill owners got down labourers from Tamil Nadu and Kerala and they were given flats to live in. Besides, they were also provided with a shrine room for prayers and poojas and it was termed as 'Varatharaja Perumal Temple'. Though poojas were conducted from 1977 to 1980 in this shrine room, it was transferred to a nearby Margosa tree which was in the middle of two Bo-trees and the devotees placed a 'Chulam' by the side of the Margosa tree and started worshipping this temple as 'Kali Amman'. As years rolled by, the devotees of this temple thought of putting up of a permanent building. For this purpose, they formed a Board and built a surrounding wall and hall. In 1987, Pon Vallipuram a retired senior Customs' Officer and a philanthropist visited this temple and found that the date for the consecration ceremony has been already fixed, but not a single statue of Gods has been brought from Mahabalipuram. Even there were no Hindu priests to perform the consecration ceremony. But, Pon Vallipuram approached the former Minister of Hindu Religious and Cultural Affairs Chelliah Rajadurai, who readily agreed to get down the necessary statues and with the help of captain's garden's Pala Selva Vinayagamoorthy Temple's Chief Priest Siva Sri Shanmuga Ratna Sharma and Sironmani Swamy Viswanatha Kumkal the consecration ceremony was successfully conducted. It is an accepted and acknowledged fact that Mr. Vallipuram who is the present trustee of this temple is rendering tremendous service to make this temple popular one where Sri Lankans of various religions and race participate without any differences. During the 'THER' or Chariot festival the statue of Goddess Kali is decorated and illuminated and taken along the streets in Chariot followed by poojas and Bhajans. In the tradition of the Hindu literature, the Chariot represents our body, which is yoked to four horses (the sense organs) wherein the individual sits, dejected and despondent, driven by the intellect which, with the mind guide the horses. These horses represent human passions and the reins symbolises the necessity of restraining and guiding the passions. The journey of the chariot through the streets is an emblem of the progress of life and the lesson is that throughout life one must control and guide the passions with the help of the soul. These passions are the driving force of life, but untrained and unguided will wreck a man's life. This is the symbolic meaning of the chariot festival. - C. Maniccavasagar |
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Produced by Lake House |
On this auspicious day thousands of women will participate at this
festival carrying milk pots (Paal Kudams) on their heads and go on
procession which indeed will give a glamours sight. The procession will
start from Sammankodda Sri Manicca Pillaiyar Temple, Bambalapitiya.
