In many of the South Indian temples, the annual chariot (ratha) festival is part of the temple rituals a this tradition exists for centuries. Hindu devotees and the towns people participate such activities with great enthusiasm, devotion and bhakti. the ratha does have adisthanam and vedis like temple. On the move the Ratha carries divinity and it is believed, it eliminates evil spirits/ negativity and adds positivity to the places it travels.
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| Hindu temple chariot ornate wooden base alphadevi7.aminus3.com |
Brihadishwarer Temple, Thanjavur:
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| 1010 year old Brihadeeswara temple, Thanjavur, TN.commons.wikimedia.org/ |
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| Thanjavur Big temple chariot, near the ther shed. hindu.com |
Above image: Brihadishvara Temple Chariot. Thanjavur. A UNESCO Heritage Site, more than 1010 years old it was built by Raja Raja Chola I. Lord's consort is Bragannayaki. The last chariot festival of the Big Temple was held in 1818. Later it was not held due to paucity of funds during the early colonial period. The new chariot is 50 foot tall (when decked-up) and weighs 40 tons with 231 wooden icons and 245 bells. After a lapse of 100 years it first ran on 29th April 2015. The credit goes to the Late CM J. Jayalalithaji and her team of ministers. Only this year the chariot ran on the four main raja veethys in April and about a lakh of people witnessed the event. Past two years, the therottam was not held on official order due to Covid-19 health threats.
Nellaiappar (Shiva) Temple chariot, Tirunelveli city, TN:
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| 2019 july Nellaiappar (Shiva) car festival, indiatimes.com |
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| Nellaiappar (Shiva) car festival,TN thehindu.com |
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| Inside Nellaiappar temple, Sangili mandapam. en.wikipedia.org |
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| Nellaiappar temple wooden base of the chariot, TN. twitter.com/ |
Above images: Nellaiappar Temple dedicated to lord Shiva is a prominent temple in Tirunelveli. The lord's consort is Kanthimathi Amman (Parvati). The temple chariot is the 3rd largest one in Tamil Nadu and the car festival in June attracts huge crowd. More than 600 police officers were on duty on the festival day and special cameras were fixed at vantage points for crowd management, security, etc. This is a huge and artistic temple and the life-size stone sculptures are quite impressive. The temple built by various rulers is pretty old 700 AD. Following India's independence, the temple car here sported Shiva's bull flag as well as India's national flag in 1948. Aane festival is a10 day event and on the 9th day god Nellaiappar and his consort Kanthimathi will be taken out in a procession around the Ratha streets. It is one of the oldest chariot made in 1505 with 8 wheels including four inner wheels. I is designed in such a way that it does not need any heavy-duty bulldozer to push it behind. Its iron axles were made in England and about 23 years ago this chariot had 13 tiers. So part of the canopy was removed for easy pulleying. The chariot's wooden base has beautiful wood carvings that include Dasavatharam of Sri Vishnu, images of god Ganapathy, demon king Ravanna shaking mt. kailash. An interesting feature is the carved image of Veerabhadra swamy at four corners. At the bottom of the car there are numerous carvings of goblins.
In the past years a posse of 1000 police saw security duty, besides drones were used to monitor the crowd. The festival attracts lakhs of devotees from this district and neighboring places as well. This temple is quite popular across India for the amazing musical pillars.
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Thygarajaswami Temple chariot, Tiruvarur, TN:
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| Azhi ther, Tiruvarur, TN. elevation.maplogs.com |
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| Thiruvarur Chariot Thygarajawamytemple.tnhrce.in |
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| Azhi ther Tiruvarur, wooden base. flickr.com |
Above image: Thygaraja swami (Lord Shiva) Temple chariot, Tiruvarur, TN. One of the biggest temples in India, the complex covers 17 acres and the temple tank Kamalayayam covers the same area. It has nine gateway yowers - gopurams 80 vimanas,
twelve temple walls, 13 halls, fifteen large temple water bodies, three gardens, and three large prakaras. The main gopuram of the temple is seven-tiered and raises to a height of 118 ft (36 m). The two main shrines of the temple are for Vanmikinathar (Shiva) and Thyagarajar. Some parts of the temple are dated to 9th CE.
The temple has numerous shrines, with those of Veedhi Vidangar (Thiyagarajar) and Alliyankothai (Neelothbalambal) being the most prominent. The temple chariot perhaps, is the largest and heaviest chariot in Asia as tall as 10 story building and weighing 300 plus tons. The height of the wooden base (made in 1930) is 35feet (35 feet H X 31feet W). Specially made hydraulic break system is in place to stop the car. Also heavy duty bulldozers are used to push the Chariot forward. The festival falls in the Chithirai month - March - April and will be for 25 days. Besides, there are 4 large thers - chariots for various deities - lord's consort, Ganapathi, Subramanya and Sandikeswerer. In 1922, the huge chariot was accidentally burnt by the agitating Justice party members and later, it was replaced. It is pulled by four huge ropes, each measuring 144 feet long.
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