Fish ban: Tiruchendur temple devotees shift lunch venue to village nearby

Several devotees who offered prayers to Lord Muruga at the Tiruchendur temple in Tamil Nadu cooked and ate a fish meal on Thursday (May 23) to conclude their fast after the Vaikasi Visakam festival. However, against the custom of partaking of the meal in the temple vicinity, they moved the lunch venue to Mukaani village, 10 km from the temple.

The age-old practice of the devotees is to eat a meal with fish after the day of fasting. They were taken aback when the executive officer of the Arulmigu Subramania Swamy Temple at Tiruchendur issued a circular banning the cooking of non-vegetarian food in the temple vicinity during the Vaikasi Visakam festival.

About the festival

The Vaikasi Visakam festival fell on May 22-23 this year. Per mythology, it is the day of Lord Muruga's incarnation, and therefore considered auspicious. The second of Lord Muruga's six holy abodes is situated along the Tiruchendur seashore in the Thoothukudi district.

Apart from Thoothukudi, devotees from many southern districts such as Tirunelveli, Virudhunagar, Ramanathapuram, Sivagangai and Madurai undertake a padayatra to reach Tiruchendur to participate in this festival. It is customary for devotees to have darshan after a dip in the sea. And, once they have offered their prayers, their fast is completed with a fish meal the next day.

The devotees would cook and eat fish meals in the temple complex, but with the new ban on eating non-vegetarian food announced by the temple authorities, devotees shifted their cooking sheds to the nearby village of Mukaani.

'Part of prayer ritual'

K Rajamani (52), a devotee from Virudhunagar, was one of hundreds who ended their fast with a fish meal on Thursday.

"We are very surprised to learn the customary practice of cooking and eating fish was banned in the temple complex this year. Many of our relatives had come with us. We couldn’t send away our guests without a fish meal as it is very much part of our prayer ritual. So, we bought fish from the seashore and cooked at Mukaani village," said Rajamani.

Another devotee, R Sundaram (63), was not aware of the ban when he started his journey from Madurai to Tiruchendur. "We reached the temple on a padayatra. We carried kavadi (a 'burden' to be carried on the shoulders, made of decorated steel or wooden arches) and completed our prayers. A fish meal was part of the ritual. But this year we were forced to cook our virundhu (feast) far away from the temple, which I feel is not right," said Sundaram.

Official clarification

So far officials have not given any information on why they introduced the ban this year.

When contacted, Tamil Nadu HR&CE Minister PK Sekar Babu told The Federal he was unaware of the developments. According to Babu, the temple administration may have banned the practice based on "local circumstances".