Chennai, Aug 25 (IANS): With India safely landed on the moon, a group of devotees performed thanks giving puja at the Chandranaar Temple, in Thingalur near Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu, said a devotee.

Interestingly, they were so confident of the safe landing of the country’s moon lander on Wednesday evening, that they had decided on the thanksgiving puja on Tuesday itself.

“We had performed thanksgiving puja to the Moon God at the Chandranaar Temple in Thingalur on Thursday. We also distributed sweets to the devotees,” Easanasivam, Thanjavur District Organiser, Hindu Munnani told IANS.

The Chandranaar Temple is one of the Navagraha temples, all located near Kumbakonam, and devotees pray at these temples to get rid of negative planetary influence on them.

While the presiding deity at the temple is Soma (Moon), the main deity is Lord Shiva.

Interestingly, the Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (IANS) is Dr S.Somanath, meaning Master/Lord of the Moon.

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was put into orbit on July 14 in a copybook style by India's heavy lift rocket LVM3.

The primary purpose of this mission is to soft land the lander on the moon and the rover to do some experiments on the moon soil.

“With the Indian space agency scheduled to launch its Aditya-L1 satellite to study the moon – Sun Mission—next month, we will do the necessary puja seeking the Sun God’s blessings for the mission’s success,” Easanasivam

added.

The nine Navagraha temples are: Suryanaar (Sun), Chandranaar (Moon), Angaragan (Mars), Budhan (Mercury), Guru (Jupiter), Sukran (Venus), Shani (Saturn), Rahu and Ketu.