Thiruvarur Temple Rath Yatra, India’s Biggest Rath

S Balakrishnan *

Temple, Rath & Tank

The Thiruvarur Temple in Tamil Nadu is the proud owner of India’s biggest temple chariot (rath). Weighing 300+ tonnes and measuring a total height of 96 feet, the rath of Shri Thiagaraja (Lord Siva) temple in Tiruvarur is considered even Asia’s biggest temple rath. It is massive, majestic and magnificent!

The Tamil month of Panguni (corresponding to mid-March to mid-April) heralds the 36-day long Panguni Festival of this temple, the annual ‘therottam’ (ther=rath, ottam=movement) forming the most important and much-awaited event on the 24th day. This is followed by the float festival (‘theppam’) in the temple tank, another enchanting festival.

Better known as ‘Aazhi ther’, this temple chariot is pulled along the four cardinal direction streets surrounding the temple; starting from the East Street it proceeds to South Street, then West, North and comes to a halt from where it started, as if circumambulating the temple. In all, five raths are pulled on the occasion.

Devotees pulling

The first one is that of Ganesh (‘Pillayar’ in Tamil), then Karthik (Subramanian), the third one is Aazhi Ther in which Thiagarajar (Siva) is seated, followed by His consort Parvati, and the last one is Chandikeshwarar. The festival begins at 5 am with the pulling of Ganesh chariot.

By late evening all the five raths reach their respective starting point and the deities are taken back inside the temple. The Siva deity is brought to the rath the previous evening in a rare dance movement called ‘ajaba’. We were lucky to have a darshan of this unique dance by chance, last year.

The base of the Aazhi Ther (that is up to the simhasan where the idol will be placed) is 30 ft. tall and weighs 220 tons. This permanent structure is made of solid wood unlike the Puri rath which is built afresh every year.

It is elaborately covered with sculptures modelled after those in the temple. Upon this base a tower-like structure is decoratively constructed with bamboo, Palmira planks, cloth, flower etc., raising the total height of the ‘ther’ to 96 ft and total weight to more than 300 tonnes.

Wooden horses

The kalash alone is 6 ft. tall. The cylindrical cloth hangings (‘thombai’) with applique work add much beauty to the rath, swinging in the air. The 9-ft.-tall iron wheels (4 nos.) are fitted with hydraulic brake. Huge wooden blocks are used to slow down, change direction, or stop the rath movement.

As these blocks crush under the massive weight of the rath, a fleet of vehicles follow the rath carrying hundreds of such blocks. The rope used for this Aazhi Ther is one foot dia and 500 m long; four such ‘vadam’ (rope) are used and they weigh 4 tonnes in all!

Lord Brahma is the charioteer of Aazhi Ther which is pulled by four horses (two green & two white) with the mythical ‘yaali’ in the middle. The most beautiful and also difficult movement of Aazhi Ther is turning of the four street corners which is not to be missed.

This Panguni festival of Thiagarajar Temple in Tiruvarur has been celebrated since many centuries back. It is mentioned in the 1140 CE/AD inscription of the Chola dynasty Emperor Kulotunga II.

Gigantic wheels

Records (palm leaf inscriptions of 1748, 1765) of Maratha Kings ruling from Thanjavur attending this ‘therottam’ festival are found in the Saraswathi Mahal Library in Thanjavur. A spark from firecrackers destroyed the grand chariot in 1926; due to the untiring efforts of devotees the festival resumed in 1930 with the new chariot after two years of work.

Due to various reasons the rath festival did not take place since 1948; it resumed in 1970 by modernising the wheels and brakes by BHEL. The therottam was earlier held during April-May (in the Tamil month of Chithirai), which has been restored to the original Punguni month (March-April). A modern concrete structure based on this Aazhi Ther stands in Chennai City by the name Valluvar Kottam.

In earlier days, it will even take a month for the Aazhi Ther to reach its starting point. But nowadays it reaches back by night itself due to modernisation (wheels & brake system) and mechanization (bulldozers pushing from behind).

This year the rath festival of Thiruvarur Thiagaraja Temple is scheduled on 7th April 2025. Thiruvarur is 290 kms south-east of Chennai; while Tiruvarur is well connected by railway and roadway, the nearest airport is Trichy (120 kms away).

It has very limited hotel accommodation which invariably gets filled up during the rath festival, but nearby towns like Kumbakonam, Nagai, Mayiladuthurai and Thanjavur (all within 50 kms) have sufficient and all types of lodging facilities. Miss not the majestic movement of Aazhi Ther, Asia’s biggest temple chariot; why, even world’s massive ‘ther’!

As the majestic Aazhi Ther is pulled, devotees fervently chant ‘Aaroora … Thyagesa ..’ and you are also engulfed in the devotional atmosphere of this massive Aazhi Therottam celebration.

Carving of the deity Thigaraja