Annual festival of Irulars celebrated at Mamallapuram

CHENNAI: Thousands of people belonging to the Irular community from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh thronged the shores of Mamallapuram on Sunday for the annual festival of 'Maasi Magam'. The festival is celebrated throughout the moonlit night and has on display a range of traditional songs sung by devotees on the beaches of the coastal town.
Ahead of the festival, about 25,000 people had assembled at Mamallapuram since Friday.They had created a makeshift stay area on the sand dunes near the Shore Temple. Each square-shaped tent is covered with sarees, while tree trunks are placed as fences surrounding the makeshift facility. At dusk, each family creates a deity in the sand, which has seven steps marking seven goddesses. Later, pooja is performed to the handmade deity and the rituals culminate in devotees taking a dip in the sea at sunrise the next day.
R R Srinivasan, a documentary filmmaker, who has been closely following the 'Maasi Magam' festival for the past 15 years, said that the annual festival has been celebrated by Irulars for several centuries. According to him, the festival is celebrated at Mamallapuram as Irulars hail from this part of the state. Their association with the coastal town runs before the Pallava rule.
"Maasi Magam is an auspicious day for people from Irular community... marriages are also solemnised on the occasion. The tribals have been hosting this festival at Mamallapuram for several hundreds of years due to their links with the coastal town that dates back to the pre-Pallava period before the seventh century," he said.