Our Sangam

Symbolising Sri Ayyappa Bakthi movement for more than 61 Years….

FOREWORD
It is traditionally explained that man has got four purposes of life. These are Dharma – Righteous – Conduct; Artha – Meaning and purpose of things; Karma – Desire; Moks ha – Liberation. The last one is said to be the Supreme purpose of life. Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas and various epics try to educate and regulate man to attain liberation through righteous conduct. There is always an everlasting search for righteous path among the spiritual minded people.
The search resulted in finding an answer for the people of south India – emergence of Sri Ayyappa Bakthi Movement.

EMERGENCE OF SRI AYYAPPA BAKTHI MOVEMENT AT CHENNAI
During the ‘Punarudharanam’ which took place at Sabarimala in the year 1952 the Panchaloka idol of Sri Ayyappa, the presiding deity of Sabarimala was on its sojourn throughout the country.
Sri Sambasiva Sivachariar of Sri Katchaleeswarar temple graciously received the deity with Pooranakumbham at the then Lord Natarajar Mandapam at the temple premises to facilitate devotees to have darshan, which is now the Sannidhanam for Lord Ayyappa. The Ayyappa idol was in Chennai for three days and scores of devotees had darshan. During this period, various yagnas were performed in a grand manner by eminent vedic scholars and pundits. The Divine power and the grace of Lord Ayyappa had brought about a sea change in the hearts and lives of devotees who were more keen to know about Lord Ayyappa and the religious practices to be followed to make a pilgrimage to Sabarimala.

BIRTH OF THE MADRAS AYYAPPA SEVA SANGAM
The above mentioned incident motivated the residents and devotees of George Town to form The Madras Ayyappa Seva Sangam in the year 1952 with the main objective of inculcating Bhakthi towards Lord Ayyappa and to arrange Pradishta of an idol of Lord Ayyappa within the precincts of Sri Katchaleeswarar Temple at the same place. In the same year, a Photo of Lord Ayyappa was installed and the Makaradeepam festival was celebrated by the devotees. It was registered under the Societies Act in the year 1957.
Right from the beginning the devotees and religious people from all walks of life have immensely contributed for the growth of the Sangam. People participated in large numbers in all the festivities celebrated by the Sangam every year. The members who had jointed the Sangam are eminent people with strong religious belief and devotion for Sri Ayyappa and are rendering selfless service.
With the support and guidance of the members the Sangam had a phenomenal growth like a Banyan Tree and sheltering the religious aspirations of thousands of devotees.The Sangam over the years had established itself as an embodiment of religion and has been nurturing the cultural heritage of our country. The Sangam has celebrated its Golden Jubilee in year 2002.

THE FIRST AYYAPPA TEMPLE IN CHENNAI
The Pradishta of Sri Dharma Sastha Idol at Sri Katchaleeswarar Temple was the first one in the Madras city and this was possible only due to untiring efforts of devotees and the spontaneous support and co-operation extended by the local public particularly, the late Sri Sambasiva Sivachariar, Sri Balakrishnan/Manager of the Temple, late Sri V.R. Ramanatha Iyer, Sri A.N. Parasuram, late M.V. Subramania Iyer, late Sri K.G. Vaidyanathan, Sri A.N. Vaidyanatha Iyer, late Sri K.R. Swamy Iyer, Sri C.R. Pattabiraman, late Sri K. Sivaraman Nair. The below mentioned distinguished honourable members also played a pivotal role towards the growth of the Sangam viz., late P.C. Seetharam, late Dr. P.M. Palani, late Sri S.S. Trivedi, Sri S.K. Thanikachalam, Sri R.N. Subramaniam, Sri V.V. Ramakrishnan, Sri K.V. Viswanathan, Dr. K.S. Sivaraman, late Sri P. Ramamurthy Chettiar, Brahmasri Gayathri swamigal, Sri S.Padmanabhan, Sri R.S. Ganapathy Iyer of Ram Bhavan.
Samprokshanam for Lord Ayyappa and other deities in the Katchaleeswarar temple was performed on July 9th, 1989 by Sri late S.Ganesa Sivachariar and on May 2nd 2004 by Sri Katchabeswara Sivachariar.