Bhramotsavam: Neighborhood Temple Street Festival

Chennai (formerly known as Madras) is the capital of the South Indian state Tamil Nadu which extends all the way down to Cape Comorin on the southern most tip of the sub- continent. It is an amalgam of small towns and villages that are all built together. I am staying barely a five minute’s walk from the beach and the Bay of Bengal. The town’s name is Valmiki Nagar named after the sage who wrote ‘The Ramayana’.

The focal point of Valmiki Nagar is the Marundeeswarar (Shiva) Temple. It has always been at the center of this ancient village. The annual Bhramotsavam is celebrated in March - April. The idol is placed on a specially designed hand-drawn chariot called Thyagarkanai and taken out into the surrounding streets - including the ECR (East Coast Road), a major artery running north-south along the coast - on the 10th, and 11th days of the festival.

What is interesting here is that Bhramotsavam, despite the intensity and fervor with which it is celebrated (even to the point of shops and services in the immediate area shutting down for the duration), is strictly a local happening. Chennai has many temples including the famous Kapaleeswarar Temple in Mylapore, where the cruise ship companies like to take all their paying customers for some local color. Kapaleeswarar has its own festivals in which the idol is taken around the market square in a huge wooden chariot. Louis Malle devotes almost an entire episode to it in his controversial, “Phantom India” (’69) film series. Even in black and white the film conveys a kind of primeval raw devotion as the crowd surges dangerously close to the chariot’s heavy wheels that can only be stopped by wooden chocks thrown in their path.

The series of pictures taken on April 5th ’09 in Valmiki Nagar seeks to remedy the absence of color in Malle’s earlier effort. Though it must be kept in mind that, inasmuch as both temples (Marundeeswarar and Kapaleeswarar) are dedicated to Shiva, Marundeeswarar speaks to his ‘civilized’ nature; the husband of Parvathi; father of Ganesha and Subramaniam, whereas Kapaleeswarar speaks to the wild and unpredictable destroyer of convention; ‘crazed cosmic dancer on the bones of the dead in the graveyard’ aspect of the same god. It is easy to see where Indian’s sympathies come down; why Kapaleeswarar is considered so much more endearing and powerful.

Bhramotsavam this year fell right around Easter. I caught the tail end of a Christian procession as well, but did not have my camera handy. The two dozen or so devotees walked single-file behind a plain, white loudspeaker truck, waving palm leaves. They were all dressed in identical black pants and white shirts.