Chandrayaan 2 Landing: India's moon mission is scheduled to land on the lunar soil in less than 24 hours
Seeking the blessings of the Moon God Chandran for the successful landing of India's moon lander Vikram, special prayers will be held at the Chandranaar Temple in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district, an official said.
"We will have a special 'abhishekam' and 'archanai' today (Friday) evening seeking the divine blessings of Chandran," V Kannan, Manager at the Sri Kailasanathan Temple or the Chandranaar Temple, said.
He said a special prayer was held for the success of Chandrayaan-1 mission before the rocket lifted off in 2008.
"We did not offer any special prayers before July 15 when Chandrayaan-2 was first planned to be launched. Owing to some technical problem the launch was postponed," Mr Kannan said.
"We thought the technical snag may be due to the non-offering of the prayers to the Moon God. Hence prior to the Chandrayaan-2 launch on July 22, special prayers, 'abhishekam' and 'annadhanama' were conducted," he said.
While the presiding deity at the temple is Soma (Moon), the main deity is Lord Shiva.
The Chandranaar Temple is one of the Navagraha temples, all located near Kumbakonam, where devotees pray to ward off "negative planetary influence" on them.
According to Mr Kannan, around 500 devotees come to the Chandranaar Temple daily while on Monday the number will be about 5,000.
He said the special prayers are their contribution for India going forward in its scientific programme.