Kandadevi car festival held displaying unity, brotherhood

The Hindu

08-07-2025

Following 2024, when the renowned car festival of Sri Periyanayaki Ambika Sametha Swarnamutheeswarar Temple was held after 17 years, the temple car event, this year ended on a peaceful note here on Tuesday as all sections of the society pulled the 'vadam,' displaying a sign of unity and brotherhood.
Amidst tight police security monitored by senior police officials, the temple car, which started at around 6:15 a.m, after passing through the main thoroughfares, returned to its position at 7:55 a.m.
Tamil Nadu Minister for Cooperation K.R. Periyakaruppan, Sivaganga District Collector K. Porkodi, and others were present during the event.
The Kandadevi temple car came to a halt in 1998, after members of the Scheduled Castes asserted their right to pull it. Since then, the car festival, the highlight of the Aani festival, has been contentious. The car was pulled once in 2006, but the practice was once again halted and had not been taken up since then.
In 2012, the kumbabishekam was performed to the shrine, but the car festival could not be organised then as officials claimed that due to poor upkeep of the car, it required refurbishment. In 2020, a petition was filed at the High Court Bench in Madurai by Maha. Chidambaram in this regard. Even as the court ordered a trial run of the car, the Covid-19 pandemic hit, putting a halt to the event.
A new car was built and finally pulled on a trial basis on February 11, 2024, following which the administration gave the nod to the Sivaganga Devasthanam to go ahead with the celebrations.
After several rounds of meetings and negotiations, the temple car festival was undertaken with tight police cover in the region. As several restrictions were put by the police to allow public to the event last year, public felt, the rules were bit relaxed this year as the police were confident about the security and the pre-meetings which they conducted with the public and village heads.
Devotees and villagers were happy to witness the event taking place for the second consecutive year. Though it was conducted in last year, it was mostly a controlled event to avoid any disturbances to the car festival.
But, this year, despite the passes were issued, public felt it more lightly and thereby they felt an air of celebration. This, they attributed to the pre-festival talks which the officials carried out with the villagers to ensure a free and unrestricted event.
Sivaganga Superintendent of Police (in-charge) G. Chandeesh, speaking about the event, said that the arrangements made for the festival were reviewed by ADGP (Law and Order) Davidson Devasirvatham a few days ago.
In addition to this, the temple car festival was overseen by team of police officials including Madurai City Police Commissioner J. Loganathan, Ramanathapuram range DIG Pa. Moorthy, Madurai SP B.K. Arvind, Chengalpattu SP V.V. Sai Praneeth, among others, he added.
As about 2,000 police personnel were deployed, the entire event was monitored and controlled by the police, he noted.
Special poojas were performed to the urchavars at early morning and the deities, Piriyavidai and Swarnamurtheeswarar were taken on the big car, while Periya Nayaki and Ambika were accompanied in the supplementing car with Vinayagar, Murugan and Chandeekeswarar deities as well.