Athi varadar temple visit
I was
born after visiting the Athi Vardar in 1979 by my Mother and named
after the LORD Vishnu.So I have an emotional attachment with the
GOD Athi vardar.
We
planned for the Temple visit on 13th of July (Saturday).We took the
Kanchipuram bus from Tambaram and it was fully loaded with people
even at 6 AM in the morning.We reached Kanchipuram at 7.45 AM and we
immediately stood in the queue without breakfast. Kanchipuram
Administration has made elaborate arrangements for the parking of
vehicles and mini buses were provided from the parking spots to the
Temple's East Gopuram.
How
is Athi Varadar Stored in Anantha Saras:
“After
reaching the surface of the pond, one needs to descend 12 steps deep
further and there lies a nine feet tub brimming with water. The image
exactly fits in the tub and lies at its bottom, with nagabasams
(serpent
) fixed to the various corners of the tub serving as clamps to
prevent the idol from coming out of the tub. Before placing the idol
in the tank, organic preservatives are applied . When the Athi
Varadar was taken out they distributed the moss stuck to the idol as
prasadam to the devotees.You can check the interview given by
Lakshminarasimhan,
known as Kittu Bhattar
to The Hindu.
Images
from the web:
Queue
management:
Actually
on weekdays crowds were somewhat manageable but unfortunately we
visited on a second Saturday with huge crowds at least four times
more than the weekday.(Atleast two lakhs people).It is crowd,crowd everywhere and it took us around 7 hours to reach the barricaded front entrance built before the East Gopuram of the Temple.
The side queue reaches the temple's main queue after 7 or 8 hours and it is around 1.2 KM walk amidst the chaos.This is the most dangerous and risky part of the queue and there is absolutely no crowd control system is in place.The police are clearly outnumbered and there is not even an inch of space for any emergency support and i have seen kids and old age people fainting amidst this huge push and pull crowd.There is no water and we have to pay 10 Rupees to fill our water bottle from the tap of an shop.After some time our body stops producing sweat and dehydration sets in and it can lead to dangerous situation.
Place reach this queue before 5.30 AM in the morning or in the Evening after 5.30 PM.In between this time is very tough due to heat and lack of water source nearby.People use all sort of cheating to bypass this queue and whenever some body enters this queue by pushing in the middle then we experience huge push and it can easily result in stampede.People also try to enter this queue illegally from the side roads and from the back side.
Huge crowd everywhere - Queue Start point and we have to go through 1.2 Km long queue to reach the same point from the opposite direction.
Main Barricade near the Temple Entrance and once we reach this spot after 7 to 8 hours,we are totally safe and we get water and other facilities.
The Kancheepuram district management has to provide basic facilities like Rest rooms,water,etc to the visiting people.Standing in the queue with small kids for more than 10 hours without restrooms or water is surely not desirable.They have to provide water and rest rooms atleast. Parking and transportation are all fine and they are properly managed.
After reaching the main Barrciade before the East Gopuram Entrance,it takes around three to four hours to reach the East Gopuram Door.From here again barricaded queue starts which takes around three to four hours to reach the Lord Athi vardar and all our pains vanish in no time as we are overcome with Spiritual devotion.At the point of worship we can have atleast 10 second view and unlike Tirupati ,here not much pushing is there in front of the Lord.
Visits can be planned on a weekday or if at all at the weekend then it has to be early morning or late evening.
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