Madurai: The consecration ceremony was held grandly yesterday at the world-famous Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple after 17 years. Hundreds of thousands of devotees from abroad and across Tamil Nadu worshipped the deity.
The consecration ceremony at the Madurai Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple took place in 2009. The consecration that was to be held in 2022 was postponed due to the renovation work on the Veeravasantharayar Mandapam and the pandemic. Following this, it was decided to conduct the consecration in 2026. Renovation works were carried out at a total cost of Rs. 32.29 crore, including 86 works funded by the temple’s funds at Rs. 15.40 crore and 100 works funded by donors at Rs. 16.89 crore. With the works completed, arrangements began to hold the consecration on Sept. 17.
Accordingly, 184 fire pits were set up on North Chithirai Street inside the Meenakshi Amman Temple for the yagasala rituals. The first phase of the yagasala puja began on the evening of Sept. 11. In connection with the ritual of applying medicinal paste to the presiding deities Meenakshi Amman and Sundareswarar, the sanctums of the presiding deities were closed from Sept. 11 to 16. On Sept. 16, after the tenth phase of the fire ritual was completed, the consecration ceremony was held the day before yesterday for 414 subsidiary deities, including Dakshinamurthy, Durga, Lakshmi, Bhadrakali, the 63 Nayanmars, and the surrounding flag trees.
Continuing from yesterday, the 12th phase of the yagna ritual was held from 4 a.m. to 5:45 a.m. Then, around 6 a.m., the kalashas were taken out to the towers. At around 7:35 a.m., the consecration ceremony was performed by pouring holy water on the golden vimanas and rajagopurams of the Meenakshi and Sundareswarar sanctums.
The consecration ceremony was held at 7:50 a.m. for the presiding deity Meenakshi Amman and at 8:00 a.m. for the presiding deity Sundareswarar Swami. Only 11,000 people, including donors, judges, IAS and IPS senior officials, and 2,000 devotees, were permitted inside the temple premises for the event. Among those who took part in the ceremony were Dharmapuram Adheenam Masilamani Desika Gnanasambanda Paramacharya Swamigal, Kundrakudi Thiruvannamalai Adheenam Ponnambala Desika Paramacharya Swamigal, and Sengol Adheenam Sivaprakasa Desika Sathiyagnana Paramacharya Swamigal.
Also present were Ministers C.T.R. Nirmalkumar, C. Ramesh, P. Viswanathan, V. Sampathkumar, K. Jegatheeswari, V.K. Rajeev, Government Secretary V. Rajaraman, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department Commissioner T.G. Vinay, Collector Nishanth Krishna, in-charge officials Veeraraghava Rao and Madhusudhan Reddy, Municipal Commissioner Gaurav Kumar, Madurai Aavin General Manager Muthumadhavan, Trust Board Chairman M. Rukmani Palanivel Rajan, MP Su. Venkatesan, and Mayor (in-charge) Nagarajan.
Under the leadership of City Police Commissioner Rajendran, 6,500 police personnel were deployed for security duty. Traffic was diverted throughout the city from 12 midnight yesterday. Special buses were operated for devotees coming from outside the city and returning.
Devotees questioned Minister Nirmal Kumar about not being allowed to enter Chithirai streets and about the lack of elaborate arrangements for sprinkling holy water. The minister replied that priority was given to conducting the Kumbabhishekam safely without any untoward incidents. Minister Ramesh proudly said that the Kumbabhishekam festival had been conducted very well.