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The Great Lamp Festival- Karthikai Deepam

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The Great Lamp Festival- Karthikai Deepam

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3500 kilos of Melted Butter Burnt!
1000 ft Wick!
10 Days continuous burning!
2 Million People See the Lamp!
40 Kilometres Visibility!
Celebrated for 2000 years without a Break!
Ten feet high Huge Cauldron with a diameter of 5 feet lamp
(27[SUP]th[/SUP] November 2012 is Karthikai Deepam Festival in Tamil Nadu)


A wonderful festival known as KARTHIKAI DEEPAM is celebrated in Tiruvannamalai near Chennai, Tamil Nadu( India) every year. It is always held on the full moon day of the Hindu month Karthikai corresponding to November. One million people visit the town on that day to witness the lighting of the Maha Deepam (Great Lamp). Another million follow suit in the ten day Karthikai festival at the Arunachaleswar Temple which is considered one of the Pancha Bhuta Sthalas (Five Elements Centres). Lord Shiva is in the form of Fire in this temple.

The beauty of Karthikai festival is that it has a 2000 year continuous history. Sangam Tamil literature which is dated to first three centuries of Common Era has several references to this festival. Millions and millions of earthern lamps ( Ahal Vilakku in Tamil) are lighted throughout Tamil Nadu like Diwali in North India. Every hut, every bungalow, every temple light the mud lamps with a special type of medicinal oil called Iuppai Ennei and arrange them in rows. Around six pm nearer to sunset the whole of Tamil Nadu will be burning billions of lamps. Anyone who sees it once in his/her life time will never forget it. The culmination of the day’s festival is a big bonfire in front of the temples (Please read my post “Science Behind Deepavali” for the scientific reason for Bonfire Festivals around the World).

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3500 Kilo Ghee!
At Tiruvannamalai, there is a hill which is considered Hill of Fire (Agni Hill). On top of the 2668 feet hill, a huge lamp is lit on the Karthikai deepa day. The lamp is burnt for 10 days and put off on the 11[SUP]th[/SUP] day. This is visible up to 40 Kilometres day and night. People throng the place to see the light and wash (burn) their sins. They contribute money or oil to burn the lamp. Temple makes millions of rupees by selling the holy ingredients.1000 feet long wick is prepared for this huge lamp at Tiruppur. The wick is very thick. The brass cauldron which is used as the lamp is ten feet high and five feet wide! 3500 kilo ghee (melted butter over three tons) is sent from Madurai to Tiruvannamalai to burn the lamp. With great difficulty temple staff carries the heavy cauldron through a seven kilometre route to the top of the hill.

The temple priests light Barani Deepam in the early hours in the temple and the Maha Deepam (lamp) is lighted on top of the hills in the evening. (Barani and Karthikai are all part of the 27 stars of Hindu Zodiac).


What is Karthikai Festival?

There are two reasons to celebrate Karthikai Festival:

1. Lord Shiva is worshipped as five elements in five different shrines in Tamil Nadu. He is worshipped as fire at Tiruvannamalai. When Vishnu and Brahma, the other two gods in the Trinity, wanted to find out the top and bottom (head and feet= end and beginning) of Shiva he appeared to them as flame which has no top or bottom.

2. Lord Subramanya was raised by six Karthikai girls. The Pleiades constellation in the sky is a six star system according to Hindus and Seven Sisters according to the Greeks. With binoculars we can see seven stars. Still Hindus can interpret it as Lord Kartikeya + six women/foster mothers. Lighting the lamps is like offering prayers to Skanda= Subramanya=Kartikeya. Lord Subramanya (popularly known as Murugan in Tamil) is itself Fire that came out of the Third Eye of Lord Shiva.

3. Though Saivaite colour is given to this festival now, Vishnu temples also celebrate it under the term Vishnu Deepam linking Mahavishnu-Mahabali episode. During Sangam Age every Tamil celebrated it irrespective of their sectarian affiliation.

4. Higher and lower castes celebrate it like Deepavali. Sisters and brothers exchange gifts. Women wear new clothes before lighting the lamps in their houses. Left over fire crackers from Deepavali are used to lit the sky.

Like any other Hindu festival Karthikai is associated with its own special delicacies like Appam, Pori and Adai. Appam is a sweet cake made up of flour and fried. Pori Urunadi is sweet balls of puffed rice in jiggery. Adai is lentil pancake, like a thick Dosai. Plenty of Tamil and Sanskrit hymns are available on Lord Shiva to sing on this day.

If anyone can see Tamil Nadu from a low flying plane on Karthikai day, whole of Tamil Nadu will shine brilliantly with millions of lamps.

Of late Tiruvannamalai is becoming more popular for full moon day Giri Pradakshina. Every full moon day hundreds of thousands of people go round the hill all through the night. Several decades ago people were afraid to go round the hill even during day time for the fear of attacks by wild animals . Tigers and panthers were roaming the foothills at one time.

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Tamil References to Karthikai:
Sangam Literature: Ahanananuru 141 describes how the lamps were lit in the evening of Karthikai Full Moon Day. Aham verse 185 compares the lamps to flowers on Silk cotton Tree. Natrinai 202 describes Karthikai as the month fit for good and charitable acts. We may take it as a reference to Karthikai Viratham (Fasting like Ayyappa devotees) and festival.

Post Sangam Literature: Kar Narpathu 63; Seevaka Sinthamani 256
Kar Narpathu says that the lamps were lit on Karthikai Full Moon Day evening; Seevaka Sinthamani says that the lamps were lit on top of the mountain.

Picture Credits: Facebook, The Hindu and other websites
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