13 December 2011

Tenth Night and Ayyankulam Tank



Right click on photographs to view enlargements


The light still blazes through the night on the top of Arunachala, but the festivities of the Deepam Festival are over. Below are a few photographs of the latter days of the Festival. The first two photographs are of the evening of the 10th day.





Murtis of the 5 Gods giving
darshan to devotees outside the Temple




Golden Rishaba (bull) procession
rounding Temple perimeter walls



The lighting of the Mahadeepam takes place on the 10th day of the Festival after which in the evenings of the following three nights, the Gods are taken for a sailing trip on the waters of the very large Ayyankulam Tank.

The Ayyankulam is the tank of the famous Arunagirinathar Temple, which is the third most renowned Shiva Temple at Tiruvannamalai after Arunachaleswarar Temple and Adiannamalai Temple. The Arunagirinathar Temple is in fact one of my favourite Tiruvannamalai Temples and I encourage more pilgrims to visit it while at Tiruvannamalai.



Crowds at the Ayyankulam Tank
to watch the Gods on their float



To view photographs of Temples and Shrines on the perimeter of the Ayyankulam Tank, go to this link here. And to see the view from Ayyankulam Tank, go to this link here.



The Gods float setting
out on the Ayyankulam Tank



Most of the crowds have left Tiruvannamalai, and the town is slowly returning to normal. And yet we can look up and still see the blazing beacon on top of Arunachala, and look in and see the Blessing hand of Annamalaiyar.




The Blessing hand of Annamalaiyar
at 2011 Deepam



4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bountiful Infiniite Blessings! Blazing beacon on top of Arunachala, blessings within see blessing hand of Annamalaiyar . . thank you dear Arunachala Heart for for posting.

Cathy Ginter said...

Thank you so much for sharing these photographs. I especially love the Blessing hand of Annamalaiyar... so many blessings ~ OM

Anand said...

Hello, I am planning to visit either tomorrow or on Saturday. Due to the recent rains, can I still see the Maha Deepam at the top of the hill?

Meenakshi Ammal said...

The rain is only forecast for today i.e Thursday. The next three days are forecast as sunny and clear. It was announced that this year the Deepam will be alight on the Hill for 11 days -- starting December 8th, so you should have a good darshan.