Karthigai Deepam

How it is kept

1. 01

   Maha Deepam lit on the summit of Arunachala at dusk

2. 02

   Bharani Deepam inside the temple before dawn

3. 03

   Rows of clay agal lamps at every home

4. 04

   Girivalam: walking round the hill barefoot

5. 05

   Pori urundai and appam offered

01The hill that is fire

At Arunachala the Lingodbhava is told as a local katha: when Brahma and Vishnu argued over who was greater, Shiva appeared as an endless column of fire, and here, at their prayer, he settled into the form of the hill itself. The Arunachala Mahatmya of the Skanda Purana praises the place. Before dawn on Deepam day the Bharani Deepam is lit inside the Arunachaleswara temple from a single flame divided into five. At six in the evening, as the five deities are brought out to the flagstaff, the Maha Deepam is lit in a huge cauldron of ghee on the summit and burns for days, visible across the plain.

02Lamps in the Sangam poems

Sangam poems of the Akananuru speak of lamps lit in rows in the month of Karthigai, which makes this among the oldest attested festivals of the Tamil land. Murugan is also honoured on the day, for the six Krittikas nursed the six infants in the reeds of Saravana who became Shanmukha. Families light clay agal lamps on every step and windowsill, make pori urundai of puffed rice and jaggery, and on Kerala’s Thrikkarthika the women light lamps for the Devi.