Tiruchendur: A sea of devotees converged at the shore temple town of Tiruchendur in Thoothukudi district on Wednesday to witness the “soorasamharam”- highlight event of the six day Kanda sashti festival at Sri Subramanyaswamy temple there.
Commencing with the Yagasala pooja on October 20, the ‘Kanda Sashti’ festival was attended by more than three lakh devotees. Thousands of devotees stayed inside the temple premises, fasting on all the six days, attending all the special 'poojas' and 'abishegams' performed to the main deity, Lord Subramanyar.
The devotees, who fasted staying in the temple included Tamils from abroad too including Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, On the 'Soorasamharam' day on Wednesday evening Lord Jayanthinathar was brought to the sea shore around 4.25 pm to behead the first demon.
Gajamugasooran at 5.06 pm. In 11 minutes later, the second demon, Singamugasooran was slain and finally at around 5.29 pm the demon king, Soorapadhman was annihilated by the spear-wielding Murugan.
After the fall of the demons at the hands of Lord Jayanthinathar, the devotees ended their six-day fasting by taking a holy dip at the sea. Thoothukudi district collector, N Venkatesh, HR&CE commissioner, Ms. Jaya, along with many other dignitaries participated at the festival.
Around 1,800 police personnel were deployed for the festival under the direct supervision of the South zone IG Silesh Kumar Yadav, Tirunelveli range DIG (in-charge) Karthikeyan and Thoothukudi SP, Mahendran.
