Devotees in large numbers pulled the decorated car of Srirangam Sri Ranganathaswamy temple on Thursday on the occasion of the ongoing ‘Sri Namperumal Chithirai Ther Thirunal’.

The annual festival celebrated in the Tamil month ‘Chithirai’ commenced on May 6 with the ‘Dwajarohanam’ (hoisting of the holy flag) inside the sprawling temple complex. The processional deity Sri Namperumal was taken out in a holy procession on various ‘vahanams’ in the following days. 

The highlight of the event was the ‘Thiruther’ held on the ninth day of the festival on Thursday for which the temple car was decorated.  The processional deity Sri Namperumal was taken out in a holy procession from the ‘Kannadi Arai’ inside the temple complex in the early hours and placed in the decorated temple car. 

Devotees from various places converged in the temple town of Srirangam for ‘Thiruther’ festival.  After rituals, the temple car was pulled by a large number of devotees at 6 a.m. from the East Chithirai Street. The temple car went through South Chithiriai, West Chithirai, and North Chithirai Streets and returned to East Chithirai Street.  A huge posse of police personnel was deployed in Srirangam in connection with the car festival. The Chithirai festival concludes on May 16.