Public festivals are tests of discipline: HC

Madurai: Public festivals are tests of public discipline and those who gather in the name of faith must remember that the sanctity of the ritual is preserved not by confrontation, but by order, reverence and mutual accommodation, Madras high court observed on Wednesday. The court said this while directing the Madurai city police to provide adequate and effective police protection for the peaceful conduct of the Thenur Mandagapadi.Justice L Victoria Gowri directed the police to ensure that the joint commissioner and executive officer of Kallazhagar Temple is enabled to discharge official duties peacefully and without obstruction during the Mandagapadi. The customary honours, including Mariyadhai, payment of mandagapadi fees and allied traditional ceremonial observances, shall be permitted to be conferred upon the seven traditional Thenur Karikaarars by their traditional titles.The court was hearing a petition filed by M Sonaimuthu. The petitioner stated that during the previous year's festival, certain individuals allegedly obstructed the temple authorities from conferring the customary honours upon the Thenur representatives. Hence, the petitioner moved court seeking adequate police protection to the temple authorities.The judge observed that Thenur, with its historic connection with the Kallazhagar festival, deserves to have its traditional observance preserved with dignity. The honours conferred during the Mandagapadi are not to be viewed as ornaments of personal prestige, but as symbols of continuity, gratitude and inherited responsibility. The state, the temple administration, the village representatives and the devotees shall therefore act in unison to ensure that the Thenur Mandagapadi is performed peacefully, gracefully and in accordance with custom. The Vaigai shall not be a witness to discord. It shall remain, as it has long remained, a flowing symbol of Madurai's faith, fraternity and cultural immortality, the judge observed.