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| Thanjavur car festival Hinduism Today |
As part of the Chithirai festival the annual therottam/ temple rath yatra is scheduled to take place on the first of come May.
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| Flag-hoisting big temple Thanjavur indiatimes.com |
Work on the decoration of the canopy over the wooden base has already began in the place where the chariot is stationed near the Ther mantap. on West main street.
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| Big temple chariot first run 2015 1st run.drbjambulingam.blogspot.com |
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| first run big temple chariot 2015 ist run.drbjambulingam.blogspot.com |
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| Thermutti mantap, west main st. thanjavur drbjambulingam.blogspot.com |
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| Ther(Chariot) mantap, West main st. Thanjavur. .mydigitalpublication.com |
Above images. The Chariot mantap (Thermutti) is right across Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt office, West Main street, Thanjavur - the main venue of annual ther festival; The big temple chariot is stationed permanently in the plastic-acrylic glass covered shed to protect the decorated wooden base from dust and vandalism.. The TMC in the recent past has recovered many Ther (Chariot) mantaps built by the Marathas on all four main streets and structurally they were very much similar to the one partially visible in the images above. The one at Samanthan kulam lane and East main street once looked like the mantap shown in the picture..These dome shaped mantaps look more or less like Chhatris of Rajasthan (Umbrella shaped domes.................................
The decorated idols (uchavanurthis) of Sri Thyagarajar his consort and other were brought to the ‘vasantha mandapam’ from his ‘yathasthanam’ on April 25 evening and then to the wooden car stationed on the West Raja Veedhi at dawn on May 1 for the car festival. After certain puja rituals the ther will be pulled by hundreds of devotees all along the four main Raja Veethis and the ther will be stopped at certain pre-planned places for the benefits of devotees.
The idols of Sri Thyagarajar and other deities will be brought back to the temple. As for Sri Thyagarajar idol, it will be taken back to the his ‘yatha sthanam ’(sanctum of the panchaloha idol) on May 3 morning.
The culmination of this festival is on the 4th of April and the event called ‘theerthavari’ will be at the Sivagangai tank in the Big Temple complex that also covers the Sivaganga park. It is to be noted that for several centuries Sivaganga tank has been used for the theerthavari 'ritual associated with the big temple. This event will be followed by the lowering of the holy flag marking the end of the festival.
It is recorded that during the Tanjore Maratha period in 1776 and later in 1813, Big temple therottam took place and the heavy chariot was pulled forward by thousands of devotees, The big temple chariot festival of Chithirai, a legacy of Chola, Nayak and Maratha reign in this part of present day Tamil Nadu is a memorable one and the tradition continues though there are breaks in the middle. Called Uttama- Mahotsava, it was a 17-day grand event during the Chola period.
https://drbjambulingam.blogspot.com/2015/04/blog-post_20.html
http://www.navrangindia.in/2015/05/temple-car-festival-thanjavur-big.html
http://www.navrangindia.in/2019/04/thanjavur-big-temple-car-festival-great.html
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