Getting Ready, Kulasekaranpattinam, Tamil Nadu 628206, India. Portrait photograph by Mahesh Balasubramanian, finalist in the Shoot The Frame Portrait photography award, December 2022

Finalist Portrait · December 2022

Getting Ready

Sri Mutharmman temple is located at Kulasekharapattinam village near Tiruchendur 55 km south of Tuticorin, Tamilnadu, India. In this temple, Dasara is celebrated as a big festival. Lakhs of people are assembled here to celebrate this festival. The uniqueness and oddity of the festival are that the devotees need not spend from their pocket. On the last day, the seashores of this otherwise deserted coastal village turn into a veritable carnival of folk music and folk dance of the devotees in their chosen fancy dresses to either solicit the grace of or to thank for the boon granted by presiding deity Sri Muthramman considered to be the incarnation of Sakthi the consort of Lord Shiva in Hinduism. I visited this place in 2022 to photo document the events and their culture.