Kesari News

Over 10 lakh visitors reached Mahamaham Festival in five days.

Dakshin Kumbham Mahamaham Festival Registers Over 10 Lakh Hindu pilgrims in Five Days.

Upendra Bharthi | HENB | Kumbakonam | February 17, 2016:: In the middle of the ten days Mahamaham festival on Wednesday, the officials say so far 10.6 lakhs devotees visited the temple town.

The Mahamaham festival considered as the ‘Kumbha of the south’, which started on February 13 will go on till February 22, the day of Teerthavari when deities from 12 Shiva temples will arrive at Mahamaham tank for teerthavari and deities from five Vaishnavaite temples will arrive at Chakra Ghat on the banks of Cauvery in the temple town. The number of devotees visiting the temple town keeps on increasing from day one, officials say.

Though all those having a holy dip do not visit the temples in the town, significant number of devotees do visit temples especially the Kasiviswanathar temple located on the northern bank of Mahamaham tank and the Aadi Kumbeswarar temple.

The Hindu Religious and Charitable endowments department has fixed counters in these two temples and counting the number of devotees visiting the temple. According to official sources those visited the Kumbheswarar temple crossed 1 lakh mark till Wednesday. As for as Kasiviswanathar temple the number crossed 75,000.

It is known from the Mahamaham festival authority that a team of SASTRA University faculty and students led by N R Rajan, Professor of ECE department are assessing the number of people entering into the tank, those inside the tank and those exiting the tank using a software developed by the SASTRA team.

“With our software which captures the heads of the devotees, using six cameras fixed around the tank, we are counting the numbers and storing for analysis. We are also updating the police for their planning”, Rajan told Express. He further added as per their calculation the 6.2 acres tank could hold 48,000 people at a time, at comfortable levels. “However upto 64,000 people could stand in the tank, albeit with some discomfort”, he added.

The team has 4 terabyte memory and would store all the data for post analysis which would help in future festivals.

Mahamaham is the biggest festival of the Hindu festival which is celebrated once in 12 years in Deccan. At at the time when the Jupiter is in Leo and the Sun is in Aquarius, Mahamaham is celebrated on the full moon day in the Tamil Month of maasi (February – March). On this day, people take bath in the Kumbakonam Mahamahm holy tank to wash away all the sins of their life.

There are 16 small Mandapams and 12 wells in Mahamaham Tank. On Mahamaham festival, approximately 25 Lacks of people will take holy bath in Mahamaham holy tank.

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__with Agency inputs.