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| pottalpudur Mosque(1674),Tirunelveli,Tamil Nadu, India www.hikeezee.com |
At this Dargah, if the prayers of the pilgrims are answered, they pay their offerings in large numbers during the Kanthuri festival with great reverence. In the Pottalpudur Dargah where the Lebbais ( a particular Muslim community of Tamil Nadu) act as priest, customs followed in the rituals are very much similar to those followed by the Hindus. Holy ashes obtained from ghee, tamarind bark and flowers called ''Nerchai'' are distributed to the devotees who visit this Dargah.
The devotees bring a large number of sheep and fowls from different parts of the state and various other parts of the country and sacrifice at the
Pottalpudur Dargah before the Andavar as they do generally do before the local Amman deities. There are also people who offer fruits for their worship rather than fowls and sheep. A paste of sandal is prepared in a pot on a large scale at the time of the Kanthuri festival in this Dargah and is then sent to the Hindu village of Ravanasamudram, from where the sandal paste is again brought back to this Dargah with lots of pomp and glory. This sandal paste is offered to the Andavar, and later the paste is distributed to the eagerly waiting crowd regardless of caste or religion. This Dargah is regarded as a pious and a sacred one equal to the Nagore Dargah and only next to Baghdad by the people of this place.
Ref:
www.hikeezee.com/explore/destinations/pottalpudur
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