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| Collasing Madduramma temple chariot, instagram.com |
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| Madduramma temple chariot, hindustantimes.com |
A few days ago, ill fate had it a tall Chariot (ther or Ratha) belonging to a temple on the outskirts Bengaluru, Karnataka suddenly tilted one side when it was being pulled down the streets by the devotees. Another tall chariot also fell on one side.
Fortunately the casualty was minimum as the chariot collapsed toward the sidewalk slowly and it gave time for the devotees (who ever pulling the chariots) to move away as fast as they could from the falling ratha They quickly scrambled to safety. The media and the people began severely criticising the organisers of the Madduramma temple because this mishap occurred for the second time in a row. In the last year's accident, the falling charot damage the parked vehicles.
Recently, the first chariot slowly toppled at Chikka Nagamangala, causing damage to several parked vehicles, the second one collapsed at Rayasandra amid strong heavy winds and rain. Casualty was one young man and the police registered a case pointing out negligence on the part of the organizers.
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| Madduramma temple and chariot, .mappls.com |
Above Image; Madduramma near Bengaluru, Karnataka, a temple dedicated to goddess Madduramma. It is the oldest temple dating back to the Chola period
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| Madduramma temple, near Bengaluru, KA.mappls.com |
Pulling temple chariots (Rath Yatra) has been a significant and ancient part of Hindu temple traditions during festivals. It is symbolic of deity's journey (processional or festival idol) from the inner sanctuary of the temple around the four streets (normally called Ratha or Mada street around the temple) in a clockwise manner, so that the people, particularly elderly people will get blessed by the almighty god. The idol is placed on the platform of the lower part of ratha made of quality wood with heavy wheels to bear the weight and decorated canopy over the wooden base.
The temples in Hampi 13th CE Vittala temple (built by the Vijayanagara rulers), Karnataka, Mahabalipuram Rathas 7th CE Pallava Dynasty) of TN and the Darasuram Airavateswarar temple (10th CE built by the Chola dynasty) of Tamil Nadu have huge raths in stone sculptures. These temples confirm that the ratha ritual of Hindu temples has been around for several centuries.
The same tradition continues across India especially in South Indian Hindu temples. About the the Madduramma temple the public and devotees come down heavily on the temple organizers for poor handing of the chariots. Notwithstand the fact that similar incident took place last year function, this year, the organisers could have been cautious. But, they failed to do so.
They paid the least attention to the flaws in the chariot's design and structure. The sad incident incident occurred in Rayasandra, Parappana Agrahara in Bengaluru. The tall structure appears to be too high more than 100 feet almost like a cylinder. My guess is the canopy at top seemed to be heavy and the chariot base was not wide and heavy enough to bear the over-bearing weight. It is obvious, the structural flaws in the bottom of the chariot (while it was on the move) are quite apparent. That both the tall chariots collapsed on one side one by one had surprised the public.
One organizer said, This incident marks the first occurrence in the temple’s 100-year history,” said Rakesh, a resident of Hoskur and event organiser. Apart, as pointed by some temple organizers, heavy winds, rain and bad weather caused chaos when the events were on.
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