Tamil Nadu: Pujas done for rain, but temples struggle to find water

CHENNAI: All temples are struggling for water despite special poojas and homams conducted to propitiate the rain god following instructions from the the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department.
All large Shiva temples perform five abhishekams and six times pooja daily, using borewells drilled within a well or a tank and are now being aked to use water sparingly. “We completely depend on borewells within tanks as well as on temple premises. The six borewells at the Kaplaeeswarar temple in Mylapore are the only source. We are happy we have water in the borewells but over the last few days the pressure is low and we are keeping our fingers crossed,” said a senior HR&CE official.
The situation is similar at other temples. “We have a little water in the tank but water for the use in the temple is only drawn from the borewell. We do the daily poojas and abishekams without any problem but we only hope there is rain in the coming days as the well inside the temple will have some water,” said an official at a temple in Saidapet.
There were times when water tankers were used to fill temple tanks and it happened in Mylapore and Triplicane. But now even tankers are in huge demand and very few temples are using them. “At present, water is needed for abhishekams, in kitchens, for devotees and in rest rooms. For cooking and other uses, we purchase water, but for the purpose of abishekams, it is mostly borewell water,” said the HR&CE official.
Last month, the department told temples to organise varuna poojas. “Temple officials must make oduvars (temple singers) recite Sundramurthi Nayanar’s 7th Thirumurai and Thevaram (sacred hyms in Tamil on Lord Shiva) seeking rain. Temple artists must be asked to either sing or play on the nathasvaram or violin Carnatic music ragas like Amirtravarshini, Megavarshini, Kedharam, Ananda Bhairavi, Rupa Kalyani and others,” said a cicular from the department.