Tamil Nadu: Temples take pujas to devotees, to livestream

B Sivakumar | TNN | Updated: Apr 21, 2020, 08:39 IST

Livestreaming will be restricted to rituals taking place inside the temples

CHENNAI: Monday onwards, the city’s pious who have had to cancel their temple visits and summer pilgrimages in light of the Covid-19 outbreak, can be rest assured to not miss out on the year’s most anticipated temple festivals. Thanks to Hindu religious and charitable endowments (HR&CE) department, which after much contemplation, has finally agreed to allow a few temples in the state to livestream the auspicious occasions.
Among them is the Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple’s celebrated annual marriage festival. Sources in the department say livestreaming the event will especially delight devotees, who have been constantly calling to know if there was a way to access photos and videos of the festival sitting at home.
“As of now, we have permitted livestreaming of pujas, rituals and festivals at Chennai’s Kapaleeswarar Temple, Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple and Samayapuram Mariamman Temple. In the coming days, more temples will be given the go-ahead to livestream important events,” HR&CE commissioner Phanindra Reddy told TOI.
The months of March, April and May are famous for a list of significant annual temple festivals. In Shaivite temples, ‘pradosham’, a revered bi-monthly occasion, draws a massive crowd numbering in thousands every year.
“Since the lockdown began on March 25, we did share some photographs of homams being conducted inside temples, but devotees wanted to witness other pujas that they missed this year too,” said a senior HR&CE official attached to a Chennai temple.
Livestreaming will be restricted to rituals taking place inside the temples. The famous Madurai Meenakshi marriage festival will be held on May 4, a day after the scheduled end of the lockdown. “But we decided to livestream the festival in any case as we weren’t sure how the situation will be,” said the Madurai temple’s chief trustee, Karumuttu Kannan.
This year, History channel will be showcasing the Madurai Chithirai festival from May 4.
Temple officials will be sharing livestreaming links ahead of events on their social media pages and through newspapers. The pradosha puja at the Kapaleeswarar Temple can be viewed on www.youtube.com/channel/UCw5l4gl5-YsTQQLCSTLtXjA/live “We will allow those recording the puja inside only a few minutes ahead of the event. Social distancing will be strictly followed and every crew member entering the premises will be given hand sanitizers,” said the temple’s executive officer D Kaveri.
Like temples, trusts and ashrams such as Ramakrishna Mutt, Tiruvannamalai Sri Ramana Ashram and Puducherry Aurobindo Ashram, too have started livestreaming annual festivals.