Panguni kolam with Latha
During the Tamil month of Panguni (mid-March to mid-April), a nine day-long festival takes place at Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore, Chennai. The celebrations start with the flag hoisting. The idols of Kapaleeshwarar and Karpagambal mounted on a vehicle are decorated with clothes and jewels.
Mylapore Panguni festival 2018
During the Tamil month of Panguni (mid-March to mid-April), a nine day-long festival takes place at Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore, Chennai. The celebrations start with the flag hoisting. The idols of Kapaleeshwarar and Karpagambal mounted on a chariot are decorated with clothes and jewels and taken around the temple and its water tank. This is repeated over the next nine days with different deities. It is a custom for the neighbourhood women devotees to come out and draw kolam to welcome the gods.
During the festival, every evening, Latha from Mami Tiffen stall steps out of her home and draws a large padi kolam on the road.
Her son ties on top of a beam, a wooden figurine used for showering flowers on the deities with the help of an articulated cup. Each time a chariot stops under the canopy while circumbulating the four streets around Kapaleeswarar temple, Latha's son swings the doll until it releases the floral offering on the deity while the chariot rolls over the kolam.
