Every year in the Tamil month Chithirai celestial wedding of Goddess Meenakshi and Lord Sundareswarar is held at Madurai the then capital of Pandiya kingdom.Meenakshi is the Queen of Pandiya kingdom .Meenakshi and Sundareswarar are the another roopam of Lord Siva and Parvathi .As per our Puranas Goddess Meenakshi is the sister of Lord Vishnu.Vishnu in the name of Kallalagar arranges the marriage of HIS sister and HE travels on a horse from Alagarkoil which is situated at the foot hill of Alagarmalai which is around 25 km from Madurai.River Vaigai divides Madurai city and Alagarkoil is on the North of vaigai river while Madurai on the south bank .Alagar comes to Madurai with a lot of GIFT as Gold ornaments and a lot more for HIS sister .HE reached the northern bank but can’t cross the river as there was a sudden flood.HE waits till next day but no chance of attending HIS sister’s marriage.VeeraraagavaPerumal the younger brother rushes to see Alagar and convey the message that the marriage was held in the morning .Alagar gets angry and return back to HIS home.Before returning HE meets His friends and stays in one of HIS Girl friend’s house and that friend’s name is Thulukka Naachiyar.People of Madurai visit HIM to cool down His anger.Those days there was no enemity between religions and to prove this Lord’s visit to an Islamic friend is shown . This celestial marriage is held every year and on this day women change the Thali saradu (Mangalsuthra)with a new yellow thread.People around Madurai throng the city and give a warm welcome to Lord Alagar on the previous day of Chithra Pournami and this is a wonderful celebration.Today Alagar got down at Vaigai river sitting on a Golden horse and HE was worshipped by Thousands of people. I had a chance to see this celebration as I lived in Madurai for seven years .May Goddess Meenakshi and Sundareswarar bless this Universe.
Dear Periamma, Nice mythological story. Our elders were great story tellers and they made Gods so human like and weaved human lessons into God' lives! Before returning HE meets His friends and stays in one of HIS Girl friend’s house and that friend’s name is Thulukka Naachiyar.People of Madurai visit HIM to cool down His anger.Those days there was no enemity between religions and to provethis Lord’s visit to an Islamic friend is shown. Our elders also tried to maintain peaceful inter-religeous co-existence by introducing muslim characters as Lord Vishnu's consorts. We have similar stories with Balaji of Tirumalai and even a place in Karnataka. We also have mandatory dargah visits at Sabarimalai!
