Is it the seed germinating? - Flag: Regional, Cultural and Religious

He smiled and said "Think of this as a seed that Azhwar is sowing"!!

And so I was there frequenting the Sirkazhi, Tiruvali/Tirunagari and Nangur area regularly. I was particularly interested in the Panguni festival of Tirunagari for two reasons.

(1) Azhwar visits Tiruvali village on the 5th Day of the festival
(2) It is the Holy Marriage festival on the 8th Day in Tiruvali followed by the Vedupari (Azhwar waylaying God for the jewels and becoming blessed).

Since we had built up a house, we decided that we will arrange for Thadhiyaradhanam on the 8th day (Food for the visitors/devotees). This went very well for a couple of years (2003 and 2004).

During 2004, After the crowd had cleared subsequent to the marriage ceremony, I was standing outside our house. The elderly ex-Karnam of the village (as well our neighbour) was also outside chatting with me. I still remember this vividly. We were looking at the pandhal (makeshift tents made with coconut leaves) that was arranged for the festival. This is the panguni festival as explained above(Conducted by March). He said that during his younger days (he was 80+ when this conversation happened) he used to play in the pandhal climbing up and down and as the pandhal was there till the Vaikasi festival, he and the other kids had fun for a long time!

I asked him "what do you mean by Vaikasi festival?  Is there one happening?" He said that there used to be an annual Bramhotsavam (10 day annual festival) for the Lakshmi Narasimha perumal of Tiruvali every Vaikasi (May/June) and it had stopped about 60-70 years before!

Needless to say, I was intrigued and tried finding out more background. Unfortunately, the number of folks who knew enough about this was a few (obviously as they had to be atleast 70 - 80+ years of age). I spoke to some of the old folks. I got mixed reactions. Some just did not know and some said all the Vahanams  (Wooden chariots etc used for the processing of the diety) were sold off and nothing existed and so the festival was stopped.

I went back to my brother in law with this information. We went back to Tirunagari again and met with the elderly Embars of the Tirunagari temple (both the families). Both remembered playing in Tiruvali during the festival and vividly described the various Vahanams and even a chariot!

I ventured the possibility of reviving this uthsavam. They had just one comment. If our intent is good and right, then he makes it happen!

So we started reaching out to many folks in the area broadly including the Embars of Tirunagari, the local Tiruvali based senior folks (Vathyar swami family, Paravasthu swami families) and the Prathivadhi Bayankaram swami of Annan perumal koil, as we were acquainted with them from the past.

We realized that this needs approval from the temple trustee as this belongs to the estate and we met , in particular an advocate from Tiruvali who represented the estate.

After arguments and counter arguments, a village gathering was arranged in the Tiruvali temple by the advocate who had by this time become a strong supporter of what we wanted to do. In the gathering broadly the following concerns were raised.

(1) While it is good to revive festivals, what is the guarantee that this will continue
(2) You are coming from the city. What if you conduct it for 3 years and then leave. We cannot afford to continue and it will be bad to abandon the festival again
(3) There were some folks who possibly felt this may lessen the importance of folks who were diligently doing what they could for years.

I was specifically instructed to keep quiet! All the above questions were answered to everyone's satisfaction and it was decided that we will do the needful to revive the festival.

Then it was told that we need an extended participation and we should allow anyone who wants to sponsor a day's festivities. We gladly agreed. The deal was as given below. We should take care of the common facilities needed for the festival.

(1) Expenses for the Archakas (Priests), other assistants and the rituals
(2) Honorarium for the Veda and Divyaprabhandam swamis
(3) Nadhaswaram (traditional music for the festival)
(4) Arrange for all the Vahanams
(5) Food for the 10 days at our home
(6) Pandhal, electricity and other incidentals for the processing around the temple
(7) Take care of the first evening,1st day's night sponsorship and the concluding 10th full day in particular
(8) More importantly, fill in, if any one is unable to or if anything else is a gap

The individual sponsor would cover the expenses for each of the days festivities including garlands, Thirumanjanam (Holy bath to the diety), prasadhams during the morning, afternoon and night and the two processions (morning and night) around the temple.

And so we arranged all of the above  including a new Hanumantha , Sesha Vahanam, Prabhai, Pallaku, Elephant and Horse Vahanams. The old Garuda Vahanam was still the best, biggest and the most elegant.

And so the nth Bramhotsavam started (First of the revived series :-) in 2005 and was a complete succcess. Lot of folks felt that it did not feel like a new/revived festival but as something that had been running for years. We have now completed 5 years and are closely approaching the 6th year in the coming May/June 2010.

During these five years, we renovated some of the vahanams (damaged in the rains), installed a Dwajasthambham (flag mast for the temple) and are currently building a room to house the various Vahanams to free space within the temple. We are also planning to complete the Palliarai (mirror room) where the diety will stay during the festival.

The Karnam who originally mentioned to me about this festival also said that he was named after the Tiruvali perumal and so was called "Narasimha Iyer"!