About more than a century back when Tamil Nadu was badly hit by plague that took many lives, the locals had turned to Mariamman temple and set up an idol of the Plague God in order to protect people from the deadly disease. Even in 2021, nothing seems to have changed. Now, the present generation has set up a temple and created a deity dedicated to protect people from the coronavirus crisis.
This move comes at a time when the second wave of Covid-19 has ravaged the country and the healthcare workers have been battling exhaustion and fatigue while trying to save patients.
According to Indian Express, the temple has been set up in Kamatchipuram village on the outskirts of Coimbatore city. The authorities have consecrated an idol of Corona Devi that has been created using granite. The black idol is 1.5 feet tall. The temple’s management have decided to hold special prayers for 48 days to please the Goddess in order to contain the pandemic. However, it won’t be open to the public in view of the lockdown restriction enforced in the state, said some local authorities.
Citing the example of the nearby Mariamman temple, Sivalingeswarar, the in-charge of the Adhinam, said it is an old practice to consecrate deities in order to protect people from such diseases.
This is the second shrine that has come up for Corona Devi in South India. In June last year, a priest from Kadakkal in Kollam district of Kerala had installed such an idol in a makeshift shrine that was attached to his house in order to ward off the fear of the virus.
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu government had intensified the lockdown last week by enforcing stricter curbs to contain the spread of the virus. Under the new guidelines, only shops selling groceries, vegetables, meat and fish will be allowed to open from 6 am to 10 am.
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