Madurai, July 11, 2013: The temple city of Madurai witnessed a major religious event on Wednesday as the famous Meenakshi Amman Temple here got a new flag mast (called Kodi Maram in Tamil) after a gap of 150 years.

In the presence of thousands of devotees who turned up to witness the sacred ceremony, temple priests performed kumbabhishekam at around 5.45 a.m. for the 56-feet tall flag mast which was made of high quality teakwood and covered with gold plating.

Supported by the State Government’s Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department and with the contributions from donors, the temple management took steps to replace the old flag mast which lost its strength over the years.

Temple sources told The Hindu that a long search operation had to be undertaken to identify the right teakwood suitable for carving the flag mast for Sri Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple. Under the guidance of ‘stapathis’ and engineers, the Kodi Maram was installed near the Swami Sannidhi.

K.Meenakshisundaram, a devotee who contributed money to get teakwood and copper for the new flag mast, says that it took several months to zero in on the right teakwood tree because the flag mast has to come from a single tree only.

After intensive search, the temple authorities could find the correct and thick teakwood at Puliarai forest area near Courtallam in Tirunelveli district.

Source: The Hindu, DT. July 11, 2013.