Sivaratri celebrates the convergence of Siva and Shakti. The “Mayana soora Thiruvizha” is a festival dedicated to Angalamman (a fierce guardian deity worshipped widely in Southern India) and is celebrating the small village of Kaveripattinam, the day after Mahasivarathri (the great night of Lord Shiva). Kaveripattinam is a panchayat town in Krishnagiri districts in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. On this day tens of devotes can be seen at the temple. The festivals stand out because of “Kaliakam”. the personification of goddess Kali. This transformation of kids, men and women are done by painting their faces and adorning attire like Goddess Kali. Once they are ready, they hide their faces until they reach the temple and worship the goddess. There are others who express their devotion by having various parts of them pierced by a metal spear, knife or hooks that are used to dangle them. They parade around the village till evening.
People used to make a wish for a newborn baby or good fortune or anything else in that temple and if that wish fulfills, the wisher has to worship in that temple on next Maha Sivaratri. Surprisingly this wishlist from the normal village people is so big that every year lakhs of people gather to worship at Angalamman temple during Sivaratri. It is very strange to see the people performing very life risking activities but none of them got hurt. The only medicine used to cure those pierce wounds is the holy powder ‘Bibhuti’. Many times, if a devotee doesn’t worship from the heart, they face several problems in their life. These kinds of stories and incidents can be heard from the local people.
In my experience, this was the first ever incident where mass people get connected to such divine power and people used to worship them. In one statement, the human is worshipping another human with the presence of the divine power of God. A soul is praying to another soul. After all the divine soul and the evil soul, everything exists in one place, that is the human body.
About Keerthivasan Nadarajan
Keerthivasan. N is a final year student of B.Sc (Photography) in ICAT DESIGN & MEDIA College, Chennai. He is very much passionate about documentary photography and wants to be a professional photojournalist. According to Keerthi, documentary photography is one of the strongest medium to document social issues and raise social awareness.
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