Festivals and Guru Pujas

Tamil months name the season, while a star or lunar tithi identifies the recurring observance within it.

✦Two ways of finding the day

The Tamil months follow the Sun. A nakshatram (நட்சத்திரம்), usually called a star, names one of the twenty-seven divisions through which the Moon passes. A tithi (திதி) names a lunar day, measured by the changing separation of Sun and Moon. The waxing fortnight is வளர்பிறை; the waning fortnight is தேய்பிறை.

Thai Poosam joins a month to a star. Maha Sivaratri joins a month to the fourteenth tithi of the waning fortnight. A tithi can begin or end within an ordinary day, so a temple's appointed time gives the observance its practical shape. Guru Puja remembrance rests on the named Tamil month and star.

The cycle below begins with Thai, when Pongal brings harvest into household and temple life. The customary Tamil new year begins in Chithirai; the twelve months can be entered at either point without changing their order.

These are points of entry into a fuller calendar. Daily worship continues between them; Pradosham (பிரதோஷம்) on the thirteenth tithi of each fortnight returns attention to Siva twice in a lunar month. Temple festivals also have their own local cycles, carried in the Agamas and temple worship.

Maha Sivaratri keeps worship through the night; Karthigai Deepam makes the remembrance of Siva as fire visible across a landscape.

✦Maha Sivaratri · மகா சிவராத்திரி

When: Masi, Krishna Paksha Chaturdasi, the fourteenth tithi of the waning fortnight. Where: Siva temples throughout the Tamil country and beyond; the observance belongs to the whole Saiva community rather than to a single shrine.

The night is kept in four watches. Special abhishekam (அபிஷேகம்), offerings, lamps and prayer return at each watch. Devotees sing the Tirumurai, repeat the five letters and remain awake; some undertake a fast according to their practice. The linga remains the centre as ordinary household time gives way to sustained worship.

Its meaning lies in that sustained attention. The soul turns towards Siva through a night usually spent asleep. A fast, a vigil and repeated worship gather body, speech and mind into remembrance. A night's effort gives devotion a form; in Saiva Siddhanta, release comes through the Lord's grace.

✦Karthigai Deepam · கார்த்திகை தீபம்

When: Karthigai, on the Karthigai star, also called Krittika. Where: Tiruvannamalai (திருவண்ணாமலை), while lamps are lit in many temples and homes.

The Tiruvannamalai festival unfolds over ten days of worship and processions. Before dawn, Bharani Deepam (பரணி தீபம்) is lit within the temple. In the evening, the beacon burns on the summit of Arunachala (அருணாசலம்). Devotees look from the temple, the streets and the country around the hill; rows of small lamps carry the same remembrance into homes.

Tradition remembers Siva appearing as a column of fire whose beginning and end Brahma and Vishnu could not find. The hill is worshipped as His form. The beacon recalls that appearing: the Lord exceeds the reach of the seekers and yet becomes a presence towards which they can turn.

The flame also offers a way to think about grace. Light makes seeing possible. Its work is disclosed in what becomes visible, just as grace lets the soul know what obscuration concealed. The hill's worship belongs among the places introduced in The 276 Padal Petra Sthalams.

Margazhi Tiruvathirai and Ani Tirumanjanam bring Nataraja and Sivakami before the gathered devotees at Chidambaram.

✦Margazhi Tiruvathirai · மார்கழித் திருவாதிரை

When: Margazhi, Tiruvathirai, the Ardra star. Where: Chidambaram (சிதம்பரம்), with Nataraja worship at many other Siva temples. The festival is also called Arudra Darisanam (ஆருத்ரா தரிசனம்).

At Chidambaram the celebration begins with the festival flag. Processions fill the following days. Nataraja (நடராசர்) and Sivakami (சிவகாமி) come in the chariots on the ninth day; the concluding day brings the extended ritual bathing and darisanam. Tirumanjanam (திருமஞ்சனம்) means the sacred bathing of the image. The long sequence lets devotees wait, sing and behold the Lord in successive forms of worship.

Margazhi also carries the dawn singing of Manikkavasagar's (மாணிக்கவாசகர்) Tiruvempavai (திருவெம்பாவை), the twenty-verse composition in Tiruvasagam, Tirumurai 8.7. Its voices call one another to wake and bathe while remembering Siva. Verse 20 gathers beginning, enjoyment and end at His feet.

✦Ani Tirumanjanam · ஆனித் திருமஞ்சனம்

When: Ani, Uttiram. Where: Chidambaram, with corresponding Nataraja celebrations in other Siva temples.

This is the other principal annual Nataraja festival at Chidambaram. It likewise has flag-hoisting, processions, the chariot journey, the bathing and the public darisanam. The bathing belongs to the temple's cycle of six annual abhishekams for Nataraja. Ani and Margazhi therefore return the devotees to a worship already sustained through the year.

The two festivals disclose the dance through ritual, sound and sight. Nataraja and the five acts explains creation, preservation, dissolution, veiling and grace; Unmai Vilakkam reads those acts in the dancing form. The raised foot points towards release, while the hand gives assurance to the soul still standing within embodied life.

Festivals of Amman and Murugan carry Sakti, divine relationship and devotion into the Saiva calendar.

✦Thai Poosam · தைப்பூசம்

When: Thai, Poosam, the Pushya star. Where: Palani (பழனி) is a major Murugan pilgrimage centre for it; Siva temples including Tiruvidaimarudur (திருவிடைமருதூர்) also keep Thai Poosam with their own ceremonies.

Devotees approach Murugan (முருகன்) with prayer, milk offerings and kavadi, often after a period of vowed discipline. Water festivals, processional bathing and worship mark the day at some Siva temples. Its Saiva life is already audible in Sambandar's Mylai hymn, addressed to Poompavai (பூம்பாவை):

The hymn makes the festival something a person longs to live to see. Offering food, walking in pilgrimage and carrying a vow give love a bodily action. Murugan's worship remains within the Saiva family of Siva and Sakti, while its local customs have their own histories.

✦Panguni Uttiram · பங்குனி உத்திரம்

When: Panguni, Uttiram. Where: the Siva and Amman temples that keep the divine marriage on this day, including Kapaleeswarar (கபாலீசுவரர்) at Mylai (மயிலை); Palani also has a substantial Murugan celebration.

The tirukkalyanam (திருக்கல்யாணம்), ceremonial divine marriage, is celebrated with marriage rites, offerings and procession. Siva and Amman are worshipped together. The marriage makes divine relationship visible: Siva's power belongs inseparably to Him, and the devotee approaches the Lord with the Mother through whom His care is experienced. Sambandar names the Uttiram festival at Kapaliccharam in Tevaram 2.47.7.

✦Aadi Pooram · ஆடிப்பூரம்

When: Aadi, Pooram, the Purva Phalguni star. Where: Amman shrines in Siva temples; the Unnamulai Amman (உண்ணாமுலை அம்மன்) festival at Tiruvannamalai is one extended celebration.

Special bathing, adornment, offerings and processions honour the Mother. Local Amman worship may include the offering of bangles. The emphasis is on Sakti's care for the living world: the power through which the Lord acts is approached as Mother, with the intimacy of a household preparing for someone loved.

✦Navaratri · நவராத்திரி

When: usually Purattasi, from the waxing Prathamai after the Mahalaya new moon through Navami, followed by Vijayadasami on the tenth tithi; the lunar cycle can carry part of the observance into Aippasi. Where: Amman shrines and households; Madurai's Meenakshi (மீனாட்சி) temple is a centre of this worship.

The nine nights bring changing adornments of the Goddess, lamps, music, prayer and kolu, the arranged display of figures. In a Saiva temple, these acts honour Amman and Durga as Sakti. Worship of Sarasvati (சரஸ்வதி), books and instruments joins learning and work to the life sustained by divine power. The Saiva connection is the Mother's power to protect, nurture and remove the obstacles to right knowing.

✦Kanda Sashti · கந்த சஷ்டி

When: Aippasi, the waxing Sashti, sixth tithi, with worship over the six days ending with it. Where: Tiruchendur (திருச்செந்தூர்), and Murugan shrines elsewhere, including those within Siva temples.

Fasting or other vowed discipline, hymns and daily worship lead to Soorasamharam (சூரசம்ஹாரம்), the enactment of Murugan's defeat of Surapadma (சூரபத்மன்). At Tiruchendur the divine marriage follows. The Lord's son bears the vel (வேல்), the spear; the festival remembers the overcoming of oppressive power and invites devotees to place their own troubled lives before divine help. Tirumurai 11 includes Tirumurukarruppadai (திருமுருகாற்றுப்படை), Nakkirar's guide towards Murugan.

A Brahmotsavam gathers several days of temple worship, beginning with a raised flag and opening the surrounding streets to procession.

✦A temple's own season

A Brahmotsavam (பிரம்மோற்சவம்), also spoken of as the temple's peruvizha (பெருவிழா), is an annual festival of several days. Its month and concluding star or tithi belong to the particular temple. At Tiruvannamalai the Karthigai celebration gathers around Deepam; at Chidambaram the Ani and Margazhi celebrations gather around their Nataraja darisanams; Mylai keeps its Panguni festival around the Uttiram marriage.

Kodiyetram (கொடியேற்றம்), flag-hoisting, announces the opening. Priests carry out the prescribed rites at the flagstaff; in Siva worship the bull on the flag recalls the Lord's vehicle. Daily processions bring the festival images out on different vahanas (வாகனங்கள்), or mounts. The chariot requires the work of many hands. Worship, music, offerings and the temple's water rites belong to the same ceremonial sequence.

The processional image gives the town an encounter with the Lord beyond the sanctum. Streets become routes of worship. People prepare doorways, join the pulling of the chariot, offer flowers or food, and listen to hymns. Temple service acquires an outward shape that can be shared by people performing different tasks.

✦What the raised flag teaches

Umapathi Sivam (உமாபதி சிவம்) brings that visible act into the teaching of grace in Kodikkavi. His opening verse speaks of the soul immersed in the three impurities, while divine knowing remains untouched by darkness:

The three impurities do not disappear because cloth moves up a pole. The poem directs the devotee towards the relation the rite reveals: the bound soul can come to know through grace. The outward festival and inward teaching meet in an act the whole gathering can see.

The Ani festival also provides the setting for the gathering of teachers described in Sankarpa Nirakaranam. A festival could give time both for procession and for sustained questions about the way to freedom.

A Guru Puja keeps a saint's attainment of Siva's feet present through worship, song, shared food and the continuing teaching.

✦A day of attainment

Guru Puja (குருபூசை) is the annual remembrance of a saint or teacher's attainment of Siva's feet, kept by the Tamil month and star associated with that attainment. It is distinct from a birthday celebration. The day draws attention to the completed life of devotion and to the help that life continues to give others.

The sixty-three Nayanmars (நாயன்மார்கள்) are remembered through their names, images and lives in Periya Puranam. Their service took many forms: singing, maintaining worship, feeding devotees, offering the work of their hands, or holding the Lord continually in the heart. Sundarar's (சுந்தரர்) Tiruthondathogai, Tevaram 7.39, is an early sung remembrance of this company.

The repeated adiyen (அடியேன்), “I am a servant”, makes remembrance a relationship. Sundarar places himself among the devotees by serving them. The saints' images in a temple extend that relationship into worship.

✦The four Santana Kuravars · சந்தான குரவர்கள்

The Santana Kuravars are the four teachers in the human lineage of the Meykanda teaching. They have their own Guru Puja days:

These four are distinct from the Samaya Kuravars (சமய குரவர்கள்), Sambandar, Appar, Sundarar and Manikkavasagar, whose hymns carry Tamil Saiva worship. Guru Pujas also honour saints outside the sixty-three: Manikkavasagar is remembered on Ani Magam. The full table that follows gathers the sixty-three Nayanmars and the four Santana teachers.

✦How a temple remembers

Where a saint's shrine or image is maintained, its annual day may bring special bathing, fresh clothes, flowers, lamp offerings and procession. The saint's hymns are sung where they exist; passages from the life may be read or explained. Feeding devotees joins remembrance to the service found in many of those lives. At the Adheenams (ஆதீனங்கள்), remembrance of teachers also gathers disciples around worship and the received teaching.

The Arubathumoovar (அறுபத்துமூவர்) procession at Mylai's Panguni festival brings the sixty-three into one public gathering. Each saint's Guru Puja remains an individual annual remembrance, even when their images appear together in that procession.

The recurring month and star carry each saint's remembrance from one year to the next.

The order runs from Thai to Margazhi; the four Santana teachers are named alongside the Nayanmars, and five entries retain a differing published reading after the primary observance.

Names can help recover a life as well as a day. Kannappa (கண்ணப்பர்) directs attention to love offered without calculation; Appar (அப்பர்) to song and service; Poosalar (பூசலார்) to worship built within the heart. The calendar returns each name to the community that keeps it.

Read the festivals beside the hymns, the saints' lives and the teaching carried by the temple rites.

✦The calendar and the lives

• Shaivam: the sixty-three Nayanmars' Guru Puja months and stars.
• Tiruthondarpurana Charam in Tamil: a short sung remembrance of the devotees, with Guru Puja headings.
• Meykandar, Arulnandi Sivachariyar, Maraignana Sambandar and Umapathi Sivachariyar: accounts of the Santana teachers.
• Saivaneethi: saints and teachers: Tamil accounts, including a mnemonic for the four Santana Guru Pujas.
• Periya Puranam: the saints' lives behind the names in the calendar.

✦The festivals in their places

• Maha Sivaratri: the waning Chaturdasi night and its four watches.
• Tiruvannamalai district: Karthigai Deepam: the temple flame, the hill beacon and the festival sequence.
• Chidambaram temple: annual festivals: Ani Uttiram, Margazhi Tiruvathirai and the six Nataraja abhishekams.
• Tiruvannamalai: annual temple observances: Aadi Pooram and the local festival cycle.
• Thai Poosam in Siva temples and Panguni Uttiram: worship beyond a single festival centre.
• Navaratri in Tamil Nadu and the Mylai Arubathumoovar festival: temple and community observance.
• Swami Sivananda, Navaratri and Kanda Sashti: accounts of devotional practice.

✦Hymns and teaching

• Sambandar, Tevaram 2.47: the Mylai festivals in the song to Poompavai; Thai Poosam in verse 5 and Uttiram in verse 7.
• Sundarar, Tevaram 7.39: the Tiruthondathogai, sung remembrance of the devotees.
• Tiruvempavai and Tiruppalliyezhuchi in Tamil and Tiruvasagam: the dawn voices of Margazhi.
• Project Madurai: Kodikkavi, the second work in the file, and Kodikkavi: the opening flag read through grace.
• Nataraja and the five acts, Unmai Vilakkam and Sankarpa Nirakaranam: the dance, the five letters and the remembered gathering at the Ani festival.