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Kalpathy car festival concludes

Vehicles of devotion:The chariots of all four temples of the Kalpathy villages moving to the Sree Viswanathaswamy temple marking the culmination of Kalpathy car festival in Palakkad on Tuesday.

PALAKKAD: The two-week-long Kalpathy Carnatic music and car festivals came to a close on Tuesday with the chariots of the four temples pulled through the streets of the Agraharams (Brahmin villages).

The deities of the Old Kalpathy and the Chathapuram temples were taken out for a village procession in the morning. By evening, all chariots returned to the base and “abhishekoms” (anointments) were performed. The deities were then redecorated and taken out in procession in a floral palanquin around midnight. The palanquin was taken to the temples by dawn on the first of the Tamil month of Karthigai, coinciding with the Kadamukham festival at the Mayuram temple in Tamil Nadu.

The car festival is centred on the Sree Viswanathaswamy temple on the banks of the Kalpathy river, a tributary of the Bharathapuzha.

Legend has it that Lakshmi Ammal, a Brahmin widow, brought a “Bana Lingam” from Banaras and installed it on the southern bank of the river, the present site. The Viswanathaswamy temple and the steps leading to the river resemble the Banaras temple and the steps leading to the Ganges.

The temple must have been consecrated in the latter half of the 14 {+t} {+h} century or in the first quarter of the 15 {+t} {+h} century, as a stone pillar in its front carries details of the endowments made to the temple by the then ruler of Palakkad, Itti Kombi Achan, in 1438.

The woman, it is believed, gave 1,000 “panams” (a mode of transaction) to the ruler with the instruction that the worship and celebrations there must be on the lines of the Mayuram temple. The festival is based on the Vedic Tamil Brahmin culture. The Tamil Brahmins who migrated to Palakkad in the 14 {+t} {+h} century established 96 Agraharams in the district, of which 18 are in Palakkad town.

The car festival in olden days used to attract traders and merchants selling household utensils, such as Kalchattis (earthen vessels), and other consumer items at makeshift shops.

Now, such stalls, fewer than in the past, mainly sell ornaments and showpieces. They will remain open for another two weeks.

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