Aadiperukku is a festival celebrated on the 18th day of the Tamil month of Aadi (Mid july -August). This year it happened on the third of August. This festival is also called as “Padinettam perukku” – Padinettu -means 18 and Perukku signifies a great rising. The Aadi month falls during the south-west monsoon period and during this month all the south Indian rivers would normally get flooded by the rains. Aadi Perukku is celebrated in Tamilnadu and it is a time of rejoicing for the farming community who live on the banks of the main rivers and their tributaries. People perform special pujas to the river on this day. Hundreds of devotees, especially newly married couples celebrate this festival and worship the Mother Goddess on the banks of the river.

In Tiruvannamalai, due to the absence of a river in the town, Aadi Perukku is celebrated within the precincts of the big Temple. The Mulaipari ritual in which 9 types of grain are sown in  earthenware pots and then brought as offering to the Goddess, takes place outside the Pidari Amman shrine. This ritual is performed as a prayer to the Goddess to provide a plentiful monsoon and for fertility of the land and to have a bountiful yield from the crops. Women also float clay lamps on the Brahma Theertham of the temple and this is quite a lovely sight at night.

Subsequently, there is also the Aadi Puram festival which is celebrated in the big temple. During the celebrations, the Goddess Parashakthi is brought to the ‘valaiyal kappu mandapam’ in the 5th courtyard. Here, first the Goddess is worshipped with a grand abhishekam. Then She is beautifully adorned in a silk sari and decked with golden ornaments and flowers. After this a long queue of women devotees offer bracelets and bangles (valaiyal) to the Goddess. The priest places the bracelets on Her arms and then returns them to the women as prasad. Rudram is chanted by the Vaidikas (brahmin vedic scholars) all the while. And thus the festive month of Aadi draws to a close and with these final two festivals it is believed the Mother Goddess to whom this month is consecrated, would have been ideally propitiated  and Her blessings would be abundantly showered.

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