Radhakrishna portrait was uniquely decorated with multicoloured vegetable garlands made by the devotees for the Second day, Saturday, proceedings.  

In olden days, sadhus who renounced material life and dedicated their life to the service of god used to sing keerthanas praising god in the streets, going door to door collecting rice for their daily food. Later days, commoners and bhagavathars joined these singing sessions early in the morning for the sake of common good. Rice thus collected is usually given to temple annadhanam. This tradition is followed in functions like radhakalyanam till date.

In the MRK, Unjavruthi session is one of the highlights as it is elaborately done, taking four to five hours, much longer than the customary time of around one hour and a huge number of bhagavathars and bhakthas participate and joyously sing songs praising Lord Krishna, Vittal, Shiva and other deities. Here not only different bhagavathars lead the group for different songs, bhakthas also take lead in singing in turns.

This year also it started at 8.30 from the MRK venue, i.e., Vallalar Koil Mandapam. From there the group led by Udayalur Kalyanarama Bhagavathar visited Vallalar Koil Double Street and Sannadhi street. Then the Unjavruthi entered Vallalar koil and had darshan of Vadaranyeswarar, fondly known as Vallalar (meaning one who gives abundantly to his devotees) and Dakshinamoorthy and proceeded to Single Street. For the first time the youth of kaveri karai burst firecrackers of 5000 pack, much to the amusement of bhagavathars and bhakthas alike. Then Unjavruthi proceeded to South Ramalinga Agraharam and North Ramalinga Agraharam. Finally around 1.30 pm after 5 hours of visiting around 200 houses singing bhajans and collecting rice for annadhanam, bhagavathars and bhakthas returned to mandapam.

From 5.30 bhajan padhdhati started and covered songs from Narayana Theerthar’s Krishna leela tharangini, songs of Kabhirdas, Purandara das, abhangs, among other songs. This was followed by Pooja kritis starting with “Baro murare” to “Sri Krishna govinda hare murare” namavali.

Dinner Menu (7.30–10.30 pm): Vatha kuzhambu sadam-vadam, , kova poli, cutlet-sauce, chapathi-channa masala, mini masal dosai, veg curry, godhumai rava upma-sambhar & malabar chutney, rasam sadam, thayir sadam, appalam, oorukay, mormilagay, masala pal.  

Nichayathartham (betrothal) followed Ashtapathi rendering. It involves bringing seer (necessary things required to start a family in regular marriage, in this divine marriage, the things brought consisted of clothes, sweets, other eatables brought by bhakthas) confirming the next day marriage.

It is a program of dance presented by specialist bhagavathars for the sake of, primarily, children. Bhagavathars wear relevant accessories like anklets and costumes to dance. The songs usually depict the human pleas to the lord to bless us with enlightenment to cross the samsara saharam. It is a way of attracting children or the younger generation towards bhakthi movement for it to be carried on well into future generations.

Abhinaya Alankaram by the renowned specialists Kumbakonam Srividya Ratnakara Brahmashri Dinakar Sharma and Brahmashri Ganesh Sharma started around 9.30 pm and went on until 11.30 pm. Both of them have the blessings of Kanchi Mahaperiyavar and they are still closely associated with Kanchi Mutt and its activities. Sri Rajagopalan joined them in abinayam this year. The splendid abinayam for the songs like “malai neram solai thannil,” “Srichakraja simhasaneshwari,” and “ninuvina gathilethura” was enjoyed by all.

An easy way of bringing bhakti to children and elders alike is through dramas. It has been a practice to enact the stories of great devotees whose devotion has moved the Lord and miracles happened. This year Nandanar’s life story was enacted by bhagavathars team led by UKB anna. They have brought in front of us how Nandan was born in poverty and worked as a servant longed to have the darshan of Shiva and how it was granted by the Lord in a most engaging way from 11pm to 1.30 am.

Similar to previous day, from 1.30 to 2.00 am Lord Radhakrishna was made to sleep by sweet melodious songs with guards protecting his abode. He was also woken up later for him to get ready for his divine union the next day.