Four day Maangani festival concludes

: The four-day annual 'Maangani' (mango) festivalof Arulmigu Karaikal Ammaiyar temple concluded here today.
This unique festival is celebrated every year in praise of Karaikal Ammaiyar - the only woman saint among the 63 saivaite Nayanmars.
The festival commenced with Vigneshwara pooja on Friday. On saturday,the celestial wedding was held,in which Puducherry Chief Minister Narayanaswamy, his cabinet colleagues and Karaikal District Collector Satyendra Singh Dursawat, among others, participated.
On Sunday,the 'pitchandavar' procession was held, during which a large number of devotees threw mangoes on the idol of Lord Shiva.
The festival is observed in the Tamil month of Aani on full moon day.

Legend has it that Ammaiyar, whose original name was Punithavathi, gave to a devotee of Lord Shiva, one of the two rare mangoes given by her husband.

The husband returned home, had his meal and a mango and asked for the other one. The woman was in a quandary and immediately prayed to God after which the fruit fell in her hands, which she served to her husband. Baffled, he concluded his wife was a supernatural being and left her.
Punitavathi prayed to Lord Shiva to take away her beauty. Her flesh dried up and she became an attendant of Lord Shiva.

It is believed that Ammaiyar gave the mango to the saivaite saint on the full moon day.