Masi Magam celebrations @ Vanga Kadal (Bay of Bengal) 2021

Today (27.2.2021) is a great day ~ Masi Magam – a day on which the Ocean (Bay of Bengal) becomes much happier – for Sri Parthasarathi Emperuman visits bay of Bengal at Marina beach. .. .. could not forget remembering the past – last year Masi magam purappadu for Sri Parthasarathi occurred on [9.3.2020]; then there was Gajendra varadhar thavanothsavam, Sri Azhagiya Singar thavanothsavam (3 days) ending on 15.3.2020 – then Corona struck .. for months together there was to be no purappadu !.

I am posting in detail about Garuda vahana purappadu of Sri Parthasarathi Perumal and His sojourn to Bay of Bengal – this post is slightly different – more on the thousands of people who gathered at the sea for holy bath accompanying Gods from various places and the darshan thousands had at the seashore of the conglomeration of Gods at Bay of Bengal.

Chennai is fortunate to have a big sea and grander sea-shore. Factually, it may not be the second longest sea-shore as many claim it to be. Early morning the famous Marina beach offers intriguing things. You can hear the sea, the sound of waves and nearer – the waves jumping and touching the shore and then submitting themselves to the shore but trying to comeback to conquer again ! would be very interesting sight – One can see monstrous ships anchored in the middle of sea, some fishing boats and Sun coming out as a red ball from the Sea – all great sights to behold.

Geographically, the Bay of Bengal stretches from Sri Lanka up the coast of eastern India; it curves under Bangladesh and Myanmar and then heads south along Thailand and Malaysia until it reaches the northern coast of Sumatra, in Indonesia. It is the largest bay in the world; one-quarter of the world’s population lives in the countries fringing it. .. .. such a long water body .. and you are not reading it as Ocean but a Bay !! .. .. … a bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. Bay of Bengal has existed for many centuries, in many languages, there have been references as Chola Lake, and named "Golfo de Bengala" by the Portuguese." .. .. some point of time when life centered only on British History the vast Ocean became Bay of Bengal as all British maps referred to it as the Bay of Bengal.

Bhasan Char (also known as Char Piya), is an island in Hatiya Upazila, Bangladesh, located in the Bay of Bengal, is now in news. The island was formed by Himalayan silt in 2006. It spans 40 square kilometres (15 sq mi; 4,000 ha). The Government of Bangladesh plans to construct a total of 1,440 buildings, including 120 cyclone shelters, to relocate 100,000 Rohingya refugees from the mainland camps of Cox's Bazar - it is reported that Rohingya refugees will be moved to Bhasan Char by ships and is stated to be voluntary.

For us back home, Marina beach is a great attraction - the pristine beautiful sandy shores - runs from Fort St George to Besant Nagar. This beach was conceived in 1884 and christened by Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant-Duff, the then governor of Madras – the beautiful beach is famed for the ambience and rich eco system. On the road side, many stone statues, some of them installed during the Tamil World Conference adorn the area and many getting added with passage of time and some by political compulstions.

The vast expanse of Bay of Bengal has number of large rivers flowing into it - the Ganges-Hooghly, the Padma, the Brahmaputra-Jamuna, the Barak-Surma-Meghna, the Irrawaddy, the Godavari, the Mahanadi, the Brahmani, the Baitarani, the Krishna and the Kaveri. There are so many seaports - Chennai-Ennore, Chittagong, Colombo, Kolkata-Haldia, Mongla, Paradip, Port Blair, Tuticorin, Visakhapatnam and Yangon,Dhamraand a host of smaller ports including Kakinada.

The morning of 27.2.2021 presented a holy sight of GODs – thousands of devotees; those seeking divine blessings accompanying the Lord and had come for holy bath in the sea on the auspicious day of ‘masi magam’ ; the sea which was blessed with the Divine intervention was perhaps showing its happiness on seeing the holy crowd with huge tidal waves. Alongside Sri Parthasarathi Perumal were many other Perumals including ~ Srinivasa Perumal from Egmore on Garuda Vahanam; Srinivasa Perumal from Periamet; Sri Kamkala Kameswarar, Sri Thiruvatteeswarar, Sri Ellaiamman; Sri Reguna Parameshwari ellai amman; Sri Murugar; Vinayakar and more .. .. ..

Here are some photos of the holy congregation at Marina – Bay of Bengal near kannagi statue – there were more at other places as well.

Adiyen Srinivasadhasan

Mamandur Veeravalli Srinivasan Sampathkumar

27.2.2021.