Coimbatore, Oct 8: As part of Vijayadasmi, a section of Telugu-speaking Devanga Chettiyar community yesterday organised a procession in which nearly 500 devotees slashed themselves with knives and swords. The annual ‘Para Kathi’ festival was organised on Vijayadasami when people from the community take nearly a five-km-long procession carrying the deity Sowdambikai Amman in a pot made of dough through the main thoroughfare amid tight police security.
The devotees chant ‘Vesko Thalli Theesko Thalli’ (my offer to you Mother. Please accept) and slash their bodies with knives and sharp weapons, and bleeding all the way. The bleeding is stopped after applying turmeric with a
mix of 20 herbs.