The highly anticipated Aani car festival at the Swami Nellaiyappar Gandhimathi Ambal Temple began on a troubling note this year when three ropes of the car snapped as it was being drawn at 7:18 a.m. on Friday, June 21, 2024.
நெல்லையப்பர் கோவில் தேரின் மூன்று வடங்களும் அடுத்தடுத்து அறுந்தது… pic.twitter.com/AYQ4FmInaY
— Nellai Nagarajan (@pt_nagarajan) June 21, 2024
This festival, the main celebration for Swami Nellaiyappar Gandhimathi Ambal, involves the cars of Swami Nellaiyappar, Gandhimathi Ambal, Vinayagar, and Subramaniyar being pulled along the four car streets surrounding the 2000-year-old temple each year during the Tamil month of ‘Aani.’
The cars, especially the grand Swami Nellaiyappar car—the third-largest wooden car in Tamil Nadu, constructed in 1505 CE—are drawn by thousands of devotees and are expected to reach the station the same day.
Originally built with 13 decks, the car was reduced to 9 decks 25 years ago due to difficulties in navigating sharp turns, and further reduced to 5 decks later on.
The festival was formally inaugurated by District Collector K.P. Karthikeyan, Mayor P.M. Saravanan, Congress MP Robert Bruce, and BJP MLA Nainar Nagenthran and DMK MLA M. Abdul Wahab. The 85-foot-tall, 450-tonne car was drawn at 7:18 a.m., but three of the four ropes connected to the Swami Nellaiyappar car snapped, disappointing devotees who blamed the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department for not procuring quality ropes.
Despite the officials quickly bringing another rope to resume the festival at 8:20 a.m., another rope snapped immediately, leading to a decision to proceed with three ropes. However, yet another rope snapped, halting the festival for the third time within an hour, as the car reached the spot between Swami and Ambal sannidhi on East Car Street.
Angry devotees held the HR&CE officials responsible for the unfortunate events. After a brief commotion, a chain was attached to the car at 8:55 a.m. to continue the festival.
தேரை ஒரு அடி கூட இழுக்கல அதுக்குள்ள அறுந்து போச்சு. இது எவ்ளோ பெரிய அபசகுனம்.518வருஷத்துல ஒரு தடவ கூட இப்டி ஆனதில்ல. இவங்க என்னதிருவிழா நடத்துறாங்க, உண்டியல் வெச்சு காசு மட்டும் வசூல் பண்றாங்க நெல்லையப்பர் கோயில் 518ஆண்டு ஆனி தேரோட்டத்தில் தேரின்வடம் திடீரென அறுந்ததால் பரபரப்பு pic.twitter.com/CzM6WCwZNK
— தங்க.காளிப்பாண்டி (@sureshkalipandi) June 21, 2024
The devotee in the above video says “They asked us to pull the chariot from 6:30 AM to 7:30 AM. 3 ropes got snapped immediately after pulling. It looks like these ropes are more than 50 years old. All ropes were of poor quality. Nobody seems to have taken notice. We don’t know what were the authorities doing. Different political leaders came and took photo ops of pulling the chariot. Now nobody is there. Media is missing. Now the chariot is standing still. This is now bad time. There’s no rope now. Authorities as well as politicians are useless. We the public strongly condemn this.”
In another video, a man can laments that they were just about to pull the chariot when the ropes snapped.
நெல்லையப்பர் கோயில் ஆனி தேரோட்டத்தில் மூன்று வடம் அறுந்துவிட்டது. இதனை மாற்றக்கோரி பலமுறை கோரிக்கை விடுத்தும் அறநிலையத்துறை அலட்சியம் காட்டியதன் விளைவு தான் என்று பக்தர்கள் குற்றம் சாட்டியுள்ளனர் @PKSekarbabu @tnhrcedept pic.twitter.com/H7fUwUomrm
— தங்க.காளிப்பாண்டி (@sureshkalipandi) June 21, 2024
“We did not even start pulling the chariot and the ropes got cut. This is such a big bad omen! The chariot has been running for more than 518 years. In these 518 years, not once has such an incident happened. This is a failure of the Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments department. We’ve been telling for many years to change these ropes. Even yesterday, people from Hindu Munnani and other devotees had told them to change the ropes. Out of 4 ropes, 3 have got cut. What kind of festival are they organizing? They’re collecting funds through hundials. Aren’t they collecting money by leasing land and through rents? Crore of money falls into the hundi of Nellaiappar Temple every year. What are they doing with that income?“, the devotee slammed the HR&CE department.
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