Sankranthi Oorgola Uthsavam at Thiruvallikkeni 2015

Today 15^th Jan 2015  is a day of celebration ~ ‘Pongal” – the harvest festival celebrated as ‘Makara Sankranthi’ in many parts of India. Makar Sankranti marks the transition of the Sun into the zodiac sign of Makara rasi (Capricorn) on its celestial path. From today, it is the month of ‘Thai’ – which commences ‘Uttarayāyaṇa, a term derived from two different Sanskrit words "Uttara" (North) and "ayana" (movement) thus indicating a semantic of the northward movement of the Sun on the celestial sphere.

On ‘Bhogi’ ~ the day before the Pongal, it was the divine wedding of  Sri Andal with the Perumal she idolized and sang in Her prabandhams.   Andal Thirukkalyanam follows the Pavai nonbu and the 9 days of Neeratta Uthsavam.  After the grand vivaham, today it was Sankranthi Oorgola Uthsavam.

Today’s purappadu of newly wed Divya Thampathis - Sri Andal and Sri Parthasarathi grandly occurred  in a special open palanquin [one that had no roof known as kooralam].  Sri Parthasarathi, was embellished with many dazzling ornaments adorning the Crown [Sigathadai]; Sri Andal in a beautiful sitting posture sat opposite to Him in the pallakku. 

Here are some photos taken during the purappadu.

Adiyen ~ Srinivasa dhasan.

PS : Read this report in www.gulte.com  - In what is considered as the first Sankranti festival post bifurcation, over 18 Lakh people are expected to travel to Andhra Pradesh from Hyderabad. Already all special trains, buses deployed for the festival are full and even many are expected to travel through personal vehicles and cabs. As per the estimate, over 32 Lakh people from Seemandhra stay in Hyderabad alone. Out of this 20 to 22 Lakh would be visiting their native villages and kith, kin in different places.

What's striking is that the huge exit of such a large number of people for at least five to six days is going to affect the daily business in Hyderabad. The city buses, auto-rickshaws, daily commodity sellers like milk, vegetables, fruits, tiffin centres, hotels, super bazaars, shopping malls are going to suffer huge dip in their business. The loss of business for an approximate five days would be at least 300 Crore to private businesses alone. This in turn would have telling affect on government in form of taxes, power bills, water bills etc. Many are expecting that this would show the strength of Seemandhrites staying in Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana who contribute huge revenue to the new state.