Athi Varadar - 2019

For 48 days starting from 1st July 2019, all the roads in Tamil Nadu lead to Kanchipuram. Yes, around one crore (10 million) devotees have thronged to the holy city to get darshan (glimpse) of Athi Varadar, who comes out of the water once in 40 years.

Almost all the temples in Kanchipuram have significance. This town makes one wonder if the number of temples is more than that of houses. Every nook and corner has a temple. Among all the Vaishnavite temples of the town, the Varadaraja temple is the most popular and the biggest. The temple, which is always crowded, got tenfold the usual crowd for these 46 days thanks to the arrival of Athi Varadar.

Athi Varadar is the idol of Varadaraja, made of the Athi tree (fig tree). It is believed that this Murti was worshiped as the temple's presiding deity earlier. Different versions explain why this icon was placed under the water and replaced by the current stone icon. But none of these views have concrete evidence. Also, many legends are being told with no reference to the Puranas.

We can only assume that the original icon was kept hidden under the water tank due to the invasion. We do not know why and when this tradition of bringing out Athi Varadar from the water started.

As per the records, the icon was brought out of the Ananta Saras tank and was kept in the temple for 48 days in 1937 and 1979. As per Kanchipuram scholar Sri. Shankara Narayanan, there is a Telugu inscription dated 30th July 1781 CE, which mentions Athi Varadar's event.

In 2019, the devotees had significant complaints about the poor arrangements. People had to wait 3 to 10 hours to reach the Vasanta Mandapam, where the idol was kept. The policemen would push the devotees, and they would hardly get a glimpse of the deity for 4-5 seconds. The so-called VIPs were treated differently. They were allowed to spend 10 to 15 minutes inside the mandapa, which was widely criticized. Cinema artists and politicians got easy access to Athi Varadar, whereas many poor devotees had to return without getting darshan. A few devotees lost consciousness due to the crowd and were declared "brought dead" to the hospitals.

Till 31st July, the idol was kept in the reclining posture, and for the remaining 17 days, it was kept in the standing posture. Those who had already visited the icon in the reclining posture also started revisiting the site, which made the situation uncontrollable.

Hopefully, in 2059, when Athi Varadar comes back, the arrangements would be reasonably good.

Happy travelling.