15 November 2007

The Big Chariot

As always the Big Chariot is parked on Car Street, in front of Arunachaleswarar Temple. Besides the usual maintenance checks and upkeep, it only gets moved around and used once a year and that is during the Deepam Festival on the 7th Day.

Its parked on the road and anyone can get close and look at the beautiful detail and finishing of the Chariot.




And in the below photographs, you can see part of the chains that will be used to haul the chariot all around the outside perimeter of the Big Temple. It is considered a great blessing to pull this chariot and there is never a shortage of willing souls to join the massive lines of people needed to haul it.




2 comments:

Divya said...

I remember visiting temples and seeing such chariots, not knowing what they were! I thought they were just some sort of temple compound structure, haha!

Meenakshi Ammal said...

The thing is the chariots are big and need to be stored someplace when not in use. I suppose in the case of Arunachaleswarar Temple, there is plenty of room to park them inside the 26 acre compound - but the chariots look nice just where they are - at the side of the main thoroughfare Car Street.