Karthigai Deepam 2018

Karthigai Deepam is a Tamil festival of lamps. At Tiruvannamalai, the Maha Deepam is lit on Arunachala Hill. Its flame recalls the story of Shiva appearing as a column of fire.

Once Brahma and Vishnu argued about which of them was greater. Suddenly a vast column of fire appeared between them. They looked up but could not see its top. Looking down, they could not see where it began.

They decided that one would find the top and the other would find the base. Brahma took the form of a swan and flew upwards. Vishnu became a boar and went down. They travelled in opposite directions, but however far they went, the fire stretched beyond them.

Vishnu realised he could not find its base. He returned and admitted that he had not reached the end of the flame.

Brahma had not found the top either. On his way he met a ketaki flower falling downwards. He asked it to support his claim when he said he had seen the top. Brahma returned and claimed he had reached it. The flower agreed with him.

Then Shiva appeared and revealed that Brahma’s claim was false. The fire whose ends they had sought was Shiva’s own form. One had gone up and the other down, but neither had reached its limits. Their argument ended when they saw Shiva.

In the local Tiruvannamalai tradition, Shiva blessed them and said he would appear as a flame on the hilltop on Karthigai. Arunachala Hill is associated with that fiery form. Today, when people look up from the town and see the Maha Deepam, they remember the flame whose limits Brahma and Vishnu could not find.

Karthigai Deepam is valued for devotion, family tradition and the spiritual or seasonal meaning attached to the day.

Worship and processions take place at Tiruvannamalai’s Arunachaleswarar Temple during the festival. On the main evening, the Maha Deepam is lit on Arunachala Hill. Many devotees walk around the hill, a practice called Girivalam. Lamps are also lit in homes.

Tamil Nadu above all, with Kerala, coastal Andhra and Sri Lanka keeping it too. The date wants the full moon to meet Krittika, so it is not simply the Kartik purnima that the north keeps as Dev Deepawali at Varanasi - though the two often coincide.