The Legend of the Chittirai Festival

It was King Kulasekara Pandya who first built a temple for Shiva at Madurai following a direction from the Lord himself in his dream. He also established a city around the temple and the city came to be known as ‘Madurai’ when Shiva sprinkled drops of sweet nectar on the city as a blessing. Sweetness, known as ‘Madhuram’ in Sanskrit became ‘Madurai’.

Kulasekara Pandya, had a son by name Malayadwaja Pandya. King Malayadwaja and his wife Kanchanamala Devi had all the treasures except children. They prayed for an heir for long and performed a 'Yaga' seeking divine blessing for begetting a child. To the surprise of one and all, a young girl of three years, dressed in fine silk and bedecked with ornaments, came out of the fire of the 'Yaga' and went and sat on the lap of Malayadwaja. The child was an incarnation of Parvathi Devi.

There was a divine voice (Ashareeri) informing the audience that this was a divine child who had come to rule Madurai. “Treat her like you would treat a son and teach her all the skills you would impart to a son".

The royal couple were overjoyed, but soon found that the child had three nipples on the chest which was abnormal. As if to address their concern, the voice further went on, "this girl will have three breasts. However, the third breast will vanish the moment she sets her eye on her suitor".

The king and the queen were extremely happy and felt blessed with this happening. They named the girl Tadāthagai Pirātti. She was also known as Meenākshi as Her eyes were beautifully shaped like fish. (Meen - fish, Akshi - eyed). Meenākshi was soon the darling of everyone in the kingdom. As instructed by the celestial voice, Malayadwaja imparted all the skills to Her right from music and art, sciences and shastras, to horse riding and martial arts. She picked up everything with equal alacrity giving immense joy to Her teachers.

In course of time Malayadwaja Pandya died and Meenakshi was crowned as the Princess and was ruling the kingdom.

After some time, she wanted to conquer all the kings in Bhāratavarsha to establish Her sovereignty. With the permission of Her mother, She set out with Her army conquering all the neighbouring kingdoms. Thereafter She proceeded to the northern direction.

On reaching Mount Kailasa, she demanded to see Bhagavan Shiva.

"You cannot see him. You will have to fight us first "said the bhootaganas (the attendants) of Shiva. Effortlessly Meenakshi vanquished them and as She was advancing, She was confronted by none other than Nandīswara, the guardian of Mount Kailasa. But he was no match to Meenakshi's prowess. He ran to inform Shiva who then came out wielding the bow and arrow.

When Meenakshi turned around to see Shiva, Her third breast vanished, She realised who She was and stood blushing.

Meenakshi's general Sumathy was also aware of the prophecy and requested Shiva to come to Madurai to seek the hand of Meenakshi.

He accepted their request and travelled all the way to Madurai to meet the queen Kanchanamala. Kanchanamala had two requests. Her daughter was a Princess and now would be Queen. Hence the first request was that Shiva should come in his most beautiful form befitting his daughter’s status. The second request was that since Meenakshi was the Queen of Madurai she would not be in a position to relocate to Kailasa and so Shiva would have to stay at Madurai. Shiva agreed to both the conditions and came as Sundareswarar (the most beautiful Ishwara) .

The wedding took place with great pomp and gaiety. All the celestial beings rushed to Madurai and Lord Vishnu, the brother of Parvati (Meenakshi) gave Her hand in marriage to Sundareswarar.

Lot of food was prepared for the guests in the wedding and Meenakshi felt a tinge of pride in that. However, not even one-tenth of the food got consumed . Meenakshi complained to Shiva, albeit with a little pride (of the wealth they possessed). Shiva decided to quell that pride and sent one of the 'bhootaganas' by name Gundodhara to eat the food. As the bride’s family looked on with horror, Gundodhara ate up not only all the cooked food, but also all the raw materials! His hunger could not be satiated and finally everybody prayed to Shiva to help satiate the hunger of Gundodhara. Shiva then created mounds of curd rice for him to eat.

Now, after he overcame his hunger, Gundodhara became very thirsty. No amount of water would satisfy his thirst. All the water in the city was brought in all sorts of utensils but Gundodhara's thirst could not be quenched. Lord Sundareswarar asked him to cup his hands. He ordered him “Vai Kai" which means ‘keep your hand’ and the next moment Mā Ganga in the matted locks of Lord Shiva surged and flowed through Gundodhara's hand and thereby his thirst was quenched. This water is said to have turned into the river Vaigai.

The Couple stayed back at Madurai with Goddess Meenakshi as Queen and Shiva as Sundara Pandya, the King, ruling the kingdom. They were succeeded by their son King Ugra Pandya who is believed to be an incarnation of Lord Kartikeya.

These events are all stated in the Tiruvilayadal Puranam written by Sri Paranjothi Munivar.

In ancient days, this festival used to be celebrated in the month of Māsi. People found it difficult to participate as it was post-harvest season. But there was another Vaishnavite festival celebrated in the month of Chittirai at Thenur near Madurai in which Kallazhagar Swami from Azhagar Kovil would come to Thenur on the banks of the Vaigai to redeem a sage from a curse. This festival had huge attendance as it was a lean month for the people.

When King Tirumalai Nayaka was ruling Madurai in the seventeenth century, he , in consultation with experts in Āgamas, merged the two festivals into one and celebrated it in the Tamil month of Chittirai. The festival came to be known as 'Chittirai festival’.

By combining the festivals, Tirumalai Nayaka ensured unity between Saivites and Vaishnavites and saw that both the festivals drew huge crowds. This also facilitated the people to be together and celebrate together. So the festival starts with the raising of the flag at the Meenakshi temple and culminates with Kallazhagar stepping into the River Vaigai on Chitra Purnima day. And what a wonderful festival it has become!

This is something akin to the Ganapati festival in Maharashtra where the objective is more of bonding and celebration.

This Chittirai festival has thus come to be a magnificent festival with over ten lakh people attending it making it one of the biggest festivals in Bharat.

May we be all blessed by Meenakshi Amman, Sundareswarar and Kallazhagar!