Kulasai Dasara is the grand festival of 300 year old Kulasai Mutharammam Temple which is located at Kulasekharapatnam in Tamil Nadu. In essence, Dasara is celebrated in the 10th day after 9-day of Navaratri festival across India. However, at Kulasai, it is celebrated as a 12-days function. It is estimated that around 2.5 Million [25Lakhs] devotees visited the temple in the 2018 celebrations.
Teams are formed from each village and are sponsored by the richest family of the village or the village head. One member from this team is chosen to don the avatar of Goddess Kali, the central god in this festival. A strict condition is that only a man can dress as Kali and has to fast for 41 days. Other members dress up like other Gods or Goddesses according to their choice. During Dasara, these devotees need to dress like the god/goddess every day and have to abstain from impure thoughts and bad habits. They need to commit to being pure in body, mind and soul.
Kulasekharapatnam is a tiny coastal town with extremely high humidity and temperature. In this climate, it’s not an easy commitment to be dressed as a god in heavy costume and with bold makeup. If this was not hard enough, they fast for 41 days and carry a pot of fire in their bare hands, wear multiple weighty false arms and a pair of metal glasses with a tiny hole limiting their vision to almost zero and are surrounded by people playing drums and loud music.
I have seen some of these avatars faint out of exhaustion, heat, the frenzy around them and dehydration.
Each team roams around many villages during Dasara and perform a ritualistic dance to earn some alms. As it is quite a lucrative way of earning money, some individuals, especially kids, also dressed in godly costumes to make some easy money.
During the last day of the festival, the celebrations peak. The avatars visit the temple and on the last leg of their journey through the temple corridor, they perform a ritualistic dance in devotion to the God. To depict the anger with which Goddess Lalithambigai destroyed Magisasuran, they enter a trance like state characterized by deafening music and violent dancing.
After they have offered their prayers, they then finally go the beach behind the temple and worship the fire that they have carried in their hands. A cleansing dip follows where they take a bath and immerse all the godly belongings which made them look like God. Local kids then have fun collecting these godly avatars to play with them or keep them as a memory.
An interesting thing however is that taking a dip in the sea with all the heavy costume is a practical problem as water makes everything seem heavier. So they just stand in the sea and spray some sea water on themselves symbolically and take off their costumes post that.
Millions of visitors come to attend this event. Sometimes an entire village arrives by buses or in trucks. They pitch their tents in open grounds for three days making it look like a mini picnic complete with cooking facilities.
Local residents are also very helpful towards these visitors. They allow them to take shelter in their homes. Some families even offer water and food to these visitors.
The final day looks like a colourful carnival where thousands of teams line up in a narrow lane marching towards the temple for hours often stretching day into night. It is life-time experience to witness the event and feel their faith & dedication.... See more
Sample
35 Views
Share
