Curtains come down on Panguni Utsavam:  Ravana carries Sri Kapaleeswarar in procession to tunes of his favourite Mukha Veena

After a noisy evening with a huge crowd watching the celestial wedding of the divine couple on Thursday evening, Sri Kapaleeswarar was carried by the ten-headed Ravana on a three-hour procession around the Mada Streets late this April 6 night.

Contrasted with the fast paced high decibel drum beating that marked the processions on the first nine days, the last procession of the Panguni utsavam featured a sole musical instrument.

Veena was Ravana’s favourite musical instrument.

Navaneetha Krishnan, who is the asthana vidwan at Kozhi Vizhi Amman temple, presented some sweet music on the mukha veena on a rather quiet and peaceful procession.

Devotees had designed the entire walkway leading from the temple gate to the 16 pillar mandapam with white pulli kolam, ahead of the procession.

Hundreds of devotees stayed back to have darshan of the final gopura vaasal deeparathanai of this year’s utsavam – it was 11pm.

Kapaleeswarar was soon joined by a beautifully decorated Karpagambal in a bright yellow saree at the 16- pillar mandapam.

A  couple of hours later, a tired-looking temple officer Hariharan, along with the trustees Thirunavukarasu and Arumugham, presented their offerings to Kapaleeswarar at 1am in front of the temple office on North Mada Street.

It was 2 a.m. when Kapaleeswarar returned through the eastern raja gopuram marking the completion of this year’s Panguni utsavam.

Even as the Sripatham personnel made their way into the temple, the priests and the Vedic pundits were ready at the Dwajasthambam for the event to bring down the flag.

• Story, photos by S. Prabhu