Varalakshmi Nombu

Festival Preparation:

Prep starts one day earlier for Varalakshmi vratham which is one of the most elaborate pujas on our calendar.

The following things need to be prepared one day earlier:

1. Kalasam and Puja saaman prep: Get ready all the puja things you will need: kalasam for amman, amman mukham, all the pujai kinnangal (usually 3-4, but nowadays we use the kumamam and sandanam dabbas instead of kinnangal thus reducing their numbers), panchapatram and uthirini, a couple of trays and baskets. Gather them and wash them. Dry them with a towel and keep them aside. 

2. Neivedyam prep: Because you will be preparing for the neivedyam, remember to take a head bath one day before Varalakshmi pujai. And start the prep only after the head bath and wearing a set of washed clothes, and complete them before you have lunch. 

i. Soak raw rice and ulundu for idli batter for a few hours and then grind them as usual. Note that we use raw rice and not boiled rice/idli rice for neivedhyam cooking. 

ii. Soak kondai kadalai for sundal. This is usually done at the end of the day, before going to bed.

iii. Make poornam for kozhakottai. Break a coconut, grate it, add jaggery and yellakai powder, and stir them in a spoon of ghee until they become a ball of poornam. 

If you also make yellu kozhakottai, roast the white sesame seeds till they splutter in a kadai and allow them to cool. Then grid them in your blender with jaggery or jaggery powder, until they are well powdered or even attain a slightly nutty sticky quality. 

Store the two poornams in clean containers, separately, away from other cooked food.

iv. If you are making rice powder for kozhakottai, rinse the rice, spread it out to dry and when semi-dry, grind it into a fine pwder and store it well. Readymade rice flour for kozhakottai will do as well.

Or you can soak and grind rice into a dosa-like batter the next morning. 

v. Other optional things that you can do: Keep yelakkai podi done and ready for payasam. Grate vellam for payasam for the next day. Grate coconut for cooking.

3. Amman alankaram : Gather all that you will need for the alankaram: kalasam, amman pavadai, mukham, one piece gold jewel, some artificial abharanam, hair piece and jadai as per your desire,

mango leaf kotthu to stick into kalasam, a coconut to go on top of the kalasam, a thin kambi/pencil to go through the kudumi of the coconut which will hold the amman's jewels, maalai etc, a piece of thread/wool to secure the mukham to the coconut.

Prepare the kalasam and the mukham separately first.  
Dot the kalasam with kumkumam and sandanam.

Wash the coconut well and smear it with a paste of turmeric/manjal podi. Put a dot of kumkumam in the centre. Allow it to dry. 

Make up the amman's face with kajal, sindoor, kajal for hair and lip colour as you please.

To put into the kalasam:

Rice two cups

5 or 7 or 9 (as per your family tradition) vettalai

5 or 7 or 9 kottai paakku

5 or 7 or 9 manjal kizhangu

Coin (preferably silver)

1 lemon

kannadi, seepu, kumkumabharani, or kaadhola karugamani 

Place a mango leaf kotthu in the kalasam.

Place the yellowed coconut in the kalasam. Make sure it sits firmly and does not come unstuck easily.

Pass the kambi/pencil through the kudumi of the coconut.

Place the amman mukham in the kalasam. Secure it well to the coconut by tying it around the kudumi with a string/wool. 

Drape the amman pavadai and upper cloth. 

Decorate with jewels.

Place and secure the hair piece with pins and string as needed. Decorate with the jadai.

4. Purchases for puja, thambulam and neivedyam:

i. For puja: 

mango leaf for thoranam at the doorstep, and a kotthu for kalasam

uthiri poo for archanai

garland for the amman ( one or two - stringed flowers will do)

a couple of lotuses

stringed flower for amman hair

Vettalai for kalasam, for neivedyam (manjal pillayar and amman neivedyam) , for placing the manjal pillaiyar on, and for vettalai paakku thambulam

Vazhai kannu - a pair for the pandal

Vazhai yellai to place the amman on

Other things you will need for puja:

Manjal podi, kumkumam, sandanam, oil for lamps, thiri, ghee for lamp, vastra malai

Milk, curd and honey

1 red blouse piece for amman vettalai pakku

ii. For thambulam

vettalai, paaku, manjal, coins, fruit, blouse pieces, coconuts, carry bags, kumkumam packets, seepu, kannadi (can alter as per your discretion) - this is a comprehensive list of conventional thambulam elements

iii. For neivedyam

a. Fruits and coconut: banana, and some seasonal fruits like pears, guava, apple,  mosambi. Fruits are to be offered in the evening again and the punarpujai day. Theya re also packed in thambulam for lady visitors. 

b. Important : to make a mental note of the number of coconuts you will need.

One for cooking which will be used on the prep day or the day before the function (poornam) and the remaining to be used the next day in cooking.

One for kalasam

One for neivedyam to be broken and offered during the pujai.

b. cooked food: saadam, paruppu, payasam, vadai, sundal, idli, kozhakottai are conventional. I gave up idli long back. Ulundu vadai and payatham paruppu payasam are conventional. 

Kosumbari is optional.

Decide the menu and make sure all the grocery items for it are available. 

Vegetables that are usually cooked: vazhaikkai, potato, ladys finger, red pumpkin, white pumpkin, avaraikai, beans, karunakizhangu, sweet potato

Vegetables that are usually avoided: kathirikkai, murungaikkai, mulangi, cauliflower, broccoli, sorakkai, karamani, kovkkai etc

Choose vegetables that are easy to chop.

Kosumbari is optional but preferred for neivedyam. Lemon is mandatory for it and cucumber is optional.

5. Puja pandal prep

Manai

Keep a wooden manai where the amman will be placed. Wash it and dry it well. Make a kolam below it on the floor and make a kolam on the manai. Border the kolams with chemmannu.

When dry and ready, place a large mirror behind the manai (optional).

Place a nuni vazhai leaf on the manai. 

Spread two cups of rice on the leaf.

Place the kalasam with amman in the centre of the manai.

Fasten the two vazhai kannu on the two sides of the room/pandal. 

Have a mango leaf thoranam/kotthu at the top of the pandal/doorway to the room where the puja is planned.

Have a second manai washed and dried. Make a kolam on it too. It will be used to carry the amman after the azhaippu to the pandal. You can use a thambalam for this instead of manai. Make sure it is washed and dried and has a small kolam.

6. Kolam:

Kolams for the occasion are done the previous day itself as it is done with rice batter and not flour. 

Soak a small cup of rice in water for about an hour and then grind it to a paste with just enough water to make a thick paste. 

Make padi kolam on the floor where the amman will be placed,

padi kolam for azhaippu on floor near the door

padi kolam for two manai (as described above)

padi kolam on the threshold/outside the main door

Keep semmannu ready and apply along the borders of the kolams once they are dry. 

7. Personal prep: Keep ready the madi clothes/or whatever clothes you will wear on the day of the pujai.

Conventionally women would wear the madisar for the pujai. 

Some wear the regular 6 yards while cooking and change into the madisar for the pujai.

All that is important is to wear clean and washed clothes for both cooking and pujai. 

Clean up the kitchen, particularly the gas stove. Conventionally a small kolam may be put on the gas stove. 

Go to bed and try to sleep!