Married twice over

With this post, I begin my series of posts on places, people and practices I’ve bumped into. This post is to do with a little town in Tamil Nadu called Thirukkadaiyur. This town hosts a nice temple dedicated to Lord Shiva adressed as Amritaghateswarar, and the temple carries it’s own history and specialities. Whenever married men turn 60 or 80 in Tamil Nadu, they celebrate their birthday grand with thier kids and grandchildren. And the Shiva temple in Thirukadayur is considered very holy to celebrate their 60th wedding (as it’s termed in Tamil; technically it’s the husband’s 60th birthday, but hey, I really am not keen in probing into that).

Yes, it is quite an achievement to live sixty years now; and more so to have a marriage last till you turn sixty. But yes, when it does happen, the children enjoy hosting their parents’ wedding – and that is a beautiful thing to see.

So moving on to the travel segment, the occasion that dragged me et. my family to the town was my aunt and uncle celebrating thier 60th wedding day, or sashtiyaptha purthi (that’s Sanskrit I think). So we made a nice little road trip along the East cost of India from Chennai through to Pondicherry, followed by a not-so-enjoyable deviation through Cuddalore, Chidambaram, Sirkazhi, Vaitheeswaran Koil to Thirukkadaiyur (you go a little further and you’d reach Karaikkal). The town has the temple and one road leading from the main entrance of the temple to the highway across, containing not one Visa/Mastercard ATM. Yes, it is quite surprising it has electricity. But quite contrasting to the above mentioned features (or should I say feature-lesses), the town has fabulous guest-houses with wonderful air-conditioned rooms (which was quite soothing following the rather tiring drive) and ample parking space (I’m sure cities in India have a thing or two to learn from them).

The following day we prepped up, got dressed and made it to the temple. There was a mad-rush inside, with at least another 10-15 couples celebrating their weddings. It was a nice sight to see: happy faces, each set with their cameramen, their kalasams lined up, and chanting mantras which not everyone understands.

The entire ceremony was two days long, containing pujas, homams and bathing the couple in holy water. So after the function concluded, we drove back to Chennai. For those of you who’re more interested in knowing about the place, history, or how to get there, you can look it up good ‘ol wiki, or this post.

With this post, I begin my series of posts on places, people and practices I’ve bumped into. This post is to do with a little town in Tamil Nadu called Thirukkadaiyur. This town hosts a nice temple dedicated to Lord Shiva adressed as Amritaghateswarar here, and the temple carries it’s own history and specialities. Whenever married men turn 60 or 80 in Tamil Nadu, they celebrate their birthday in a big way with thier kids and grandchildren. And the Shiva temple in Thirukkadaiyur is considered very holy to celebrate their arupatham kalyanam (or 60th wedding in Tamil; technically it’s the husband’s 60th birthday, but hey, I really am not keen in probing into that; and kalyanam doesn’t necessarily have to mean wedding, as Sandhya rightly said).

Yes, it is quite an achievement to live sixty years now; and more so to have a marriage last till you turn sixty. But of course, when it does happen, the children enjoy hosting their parents’ wedding – and that is a beautiful thing to see.

So moving on to the travel segment, the occasion that dragged me and my family to the town was my aunt and uncle celebrating thier 60th wedding day, or sashtiyaptha purthi. So we made a nice little road trip along the East cost of India from Chennai through to Pondicherry, followed by a not-so-enjoyable deviation through Cuddalore, Chidambaram, Sirkazhi, Vaitheeswaran Koil to Thirukkadaiyur (you go a little further and you’d reach Karaikkal). The town has the temple and one road leading from the main entrance of the temple to the highway across, containing not even one Visa/Mastercard ATM. Yes, it is quite surprising it has electricity. But quite contrasting to the above mentioned features (or should I say feature-lesses), the town has fabulous guest-houses (like Hotel Manivizha, where we stayed) with wonderful air-conditioned rooms (which was quite soothing following the rather tiring drive) and ample parking space (I’m sure cities in India have a thing or two to learn from them).

The following day we prepped up, got dressed and made it to the temple. There was a mad-rush inside, with at least another 10-15 couples celebrating their weddings. It was a nice sight to see: happy faces, each set with their cameramen, their kalasams lined up, and chanting mantras which not everyone understands.

The entire ceremony was two days long, containing pujas, homams and bathing the couple in holy water (if you’re dumbstruck by the last clause, see image below).

So after the function concluded, we drove back to Chennai. For those of you who’re more interested in knowing about the place, history, or how to get there, you can look it up good ‘ol wiki, or this post.

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