Bala Gurunadha Swamy

There is a stream of families whose principal deity is Bala Gurunadha Swamy near Andhiyur of Erode in Tamilnadu. It is reverred as Subramanya Swamy too. It is the custom to do Pongal what ALL the families participate - both physicall and financially - for the Pooja and is done with lots of restrictions and rules and regulations.

It is a great task to do at home because of the perfection to be maintained. This is a male domain Pongal cooking. Though elderly women assist. Paddy is manually crushed to rice, winnowed and the rice is cooked in pure milk with jaggery. The measures, ingredient, etc are well stipulated. Doing this at home needs lots of coordination, man power and above all WILL to do that. To the best of my knowledge, only Nevely Guru family had done it twice in the recent decades. First one at Palakkollai their native village and latest at Neyveli. Hats off to them!