page_title: Adikesava Perumal temple, Mylapore
section_title: Worship practices and festivals
hierarchical_section_title: Adikesava Perumal temple, Mylapore / Worship practices and festivals
caption_attribution_description: English: Adikesava Perumal temple, Mylapore
context_page_description: Adi Kesava Temple is dedicated to Hindu god Vishnu located in Mylapore, Chennai, in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Constructed in the Dravidian style of architecture, dedicated to Vishnu, who is worshipped as Sri Aadi Kesava Perumal and his consort Lakshmi as Mayuravalli Thayar. The temple is believed to be the birthplace of Peyazhwar, one of the first three of the twelve azhwar saints of the 6th-9th century AD.
  The temple is open from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m and has six daily rituals at various times of the day. The temple is maintained and administered by the Hindu Religious and Endowment Board of the Government of Tamil Nadu.
context_section_description: The temple is open from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The temple priests perform the pooja (rituals) during festivals and on a daily basis. As at other Vishnu temples of Tamil Nadu, the priests belong to the Vaishnavaite community. The temple rituals are performed four times a day: Ushathkalam at 8 a.m., Kalasanthi at 10:00 a.m., Sayarakshai at 5:00 p.m. and Ardha Jamam at 7:00 p.m. Each ritual has three steps: alangaram (decoration), neivethyam (food offering) and deepa aradanai (waving of lamps) for both Sri Aadi Kesava Perumal and his consort Sri Mayuravalli Thayar. During the worship, religious instructions in the Vedas (sacred text) are recited by priests, and worshippers prostrate themselves in front of the temple mast. There are weekly, monthly and fortnightly rituals performed in the temple.
  The temple procession takes place during the ekadasi day, Tiruvonam, Full Moon ("PaurNami")/ New Moon ("amaavaasai") days, when the festival images ("uthsavar") of  Adi Kesava, Sridevi and Bhudevi are taken in a procession. There are different processions taken by Mayuravalli Thaayaar on Fridays and Uthiram star, Aandaal on the Pooram star, Rama on Punarpoosam,  and the Azhwars, on their birthdays.  Brahmotsavam, the main festival of the temple is performed during the Tamil month of Panguni.  During the ten-day festival, the twelve Azhwars and the twenty-one Vaishnava Aachaaryas are taken in procession along with Adi Kesava perumaaL. During the Tamil month of Aadi, float festival ("theppOthsavam") is conducted for five days.
  The temple is maintained and administered by the Hindu Religious and Endowment Board of the Government of Tamil Nadu.
caption: Vimanam of the central shrine
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "2560", "Image ImageLength": "1536", "Image Make": "samsung", "Image Model": "SM-G355H", "Image Orientation": "Rotated 90 CW", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "G355HDDU0AOG1", "Image DateTime": "2015:09:24 09:37:34", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "238", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "794", "Thumbnail ImageWidth": "0", "Thumbnail ImageLength": "0", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "954", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "15209", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "EXIF ExposureTime": "0", "EXIF FNumber": "13/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2015:09:24 09:37:34", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2015:09:24 09:37:34", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "-536870912/25", "EXIF ApertureValue": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "14/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "331/100", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2560", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1536", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "IMAGE 2015:09:24 09:37:34"}