DRIVING THROUGH CAUVERY DELTA -Day 3

AROUND KUMBHAKONAM       

  The yatra of day 3 started at 5.30 in the morning and the first shot was at Swamimalai, one of the Aru padaiveedu (6 sacred subrahmanya kshetras in Tamilnadu).

Sthalapuranam:

       Swaminatha swamy is Jnanam personified. Here even his vel (spear) is not a weapon of war but a tool of enlightenment. There was a lovely legend to explain this. It is in Swamimalai that Subrahmanya , Shiva’s younger son, explained  the meaning of Pranava mantra, OM, to his father. Once, as a child, Subrahmanya asked Brahma whether he knew the meaning of OM. As Brahma had no answer, Subrahmanya imprisoned him in a fit of anger and took over the work of creation himself. A perturbed Shiva ordered his son to release Brahma. The boy-god did so, but only because he could not disobey his father. A mollified Shiva then asked Subrahmanya to tell him the meaning of OM. As it was a secret, Subrahmanya asked his father to come close. Befitting his status as guru, Subrahmanya sat at a higher level while, as a student, Shiva sat at a lower level and brought his ear close to his son’s lips and was thus preached the meaning of OM. As Subrahmanya, at that moment, became the Nathan(Lord or teacher) of Shiva(Swami), he is Swaminathan. In Tamil, this is Thagappan Swami (the lord of the father).

                                 
    The idol of Swaminathan in the main sanctum is majestic. The statue holds the Dandayutham (staff or club) in the right hand and the left rests lightly on the thigh in a pose of great strength and calm. The inference is that Shiva and Swaminatha have merged in this idol.

            We next stopped at Thiruvalanchuzhi. (Note that ‘zh’ in the word is pronounced as ‘la’ in common). The principal deity here is Kapartheeswara and his consort is Brihan nayaki. Over time, however, it has come to be known as Vinayaka Sthala. A tiny white vinayaka murthy welcomes us into the temple at the entrance. This is believed to be made from the sea foam during the ksheera sagara mathanam.

                                                  

Our next destination was Patteswaram, where the lord Dhenupureeswara with Maa Durga takes shelter and showers his grace.

Sthala puranam:

 Here Parvathi did penance, standing on one leg, in order to marry Shiva.  The heavenly cow Kamadhenu too did worship Shiva here thus giving the lord the name Dhenupureeswara. Kamadhenu’s daughter Patti worshipped Shiva by showering her milk on the lingam, thus comes the name Patteeswaram. The more recent legend says when the child saint Thiru Jnana sambandhar walked here on a hot day, to visit the temple Shiva bid his invisible ganas to hold a pearl canopy over his head, to shelter his devotee from heat. Then, eager to see how beautiful this most beloved of his devotees looked under the pearl canopy, Shiva ordered Nandi to move aside so that he could see sambandhar walk towards him. And yes, the nandi moved aside; so, in fact, did all three nandis in a row.

                                                   

       The idol of Durga is unusually tall and has a great presence. She stands, one foot forward, atop the head of buffalo-faced Mahishasura. Her mount, the Lion, crouches behind her. She is 8 armed and carries weapons in all hands, save one, in which she holds a parrot.  

                         Then driving again towards Kumbhakonam, we encountered Darasuram which is famous for its Airavateeswara temple. This was declared as a UNESCO world heritage site. The hall of the main sanctum has been built at a height in the shape of a chariot.

                                                    

Legend has it that Indra’s elephant Airavatha worshipped shiva here and the lord took the name of the devotee. The goddess here is Periya nayaki. We met a guide there who explained us in detail about the ruins of the sculptures placed in a room that were the result of the attacks by the muslim rulers in olden days.

                       The next stop is at Thirunageswaram, the famous navagraha temple for Rahu. Lord Shiva is worshipped here as Naganatha swami with consort Artha Chandra Gujambika and Giri gujambika. The Rahu graham is adorned with 2 consorts Naga valli and Naga kannan. The idol of Girigujambika is as described in the namam “Sa chamara rama vani savya dakshina sevitha” which means she is flanked by Lakshmi and Saraswathi.

                                            

   The milk poured in Abhishwkam to Rahu is said to turn blue as it flows over the body and regains its white color once it reaches his feet.

The next very interesting temple we visited was that of Uppiliapan. This is also known as Venkatachalapathi swami temple whose name Uppiliappan means he who eats no salt.

Sthala puranam:

Long ago goddess Mahalakshmi was incarnated as a beautiful 2 year old girl in the Tulsi grove where the temple now stands. She was named Bhumi devi and was brought up by Rishi Markandeya. When the girl reached marriageable age, one of the suitors who approached the sage for her hand was an elderly and frail brahmachari. The dismayed sage tried to put off the wholly inappropriate proposal by saying that his daughter would be unsuitable as she was too young to even know how to put salt in the food. But the stubborn suitor said, “Never mind. I still want to marry your daughter.” The desperate sage closed his eyes and prayed to Vishnu to deliver him from this terrible situation. When he opened his eyes again, the old man had vanished. In his place, stood a youthful, handsome Vishnu himself. After the wedding was performed in a heavenly manner by the devas, the bridegroom announced that since his wife was too young to know how to put salt in the food, he would partake of only saltless food in this sthala. This tradition continues even today.

                                                   

The idol is flanked by the kneeling figures of Bhumidevi and Markandeya Rishi, the only place where the father-in-law is seated and the son-in-law stands in respect before him. (Just kidding)

                              While searching the way for the next point Ayyavadi, we were on a way wrong route and were blessed by the darshan of another very important temple which is one of the 108 Divya Desams. That is Nachiar Kovil. Here in this place, the goddess gets more priority than the Lord so she was seen straight from the mukhadwara and the Lord is seen standing a bit aside.

                                     

 Speciality:

The impressive idol of Kal Garuda is the speciality of this temple. Twice during the year the Kal Garuda is taken out of his shrine to serve as Srinivasa’s mount in the procession. It takes 4 men to carry the garuda out of his sanctum. As they carry him out, he seems to become heavier and they need 8 men, then 16 and so on until 64 men are required to carry him out of the temple and 128 to move him in the procession. His weight seems to decrease in the same proportion on the return journey until only 4 men are required to carry him back into his sanctum. Huge crowds turn out at the festivals to see this phenomenon.    

    The last point for this section of the day was Ayyavadi, the adobe of Sri Pratyanga devi, an ugra devatha. This goddess is believed to be worshipped by Indrajit, son of Rvana and even Pandavas. The Homam performed here is the interesting thing where at the end of the homam, chillis are thrown into the fire which results in no odor or inconvenience. No Abhishekam is performed to the deity here only punugu is applied. (a kind of oil)

                            Can you believe, the above all took only half of the day since they are all located very near to each other.

                 After a power nap in kumbhakonam hotel, (filling bellies with good food at Murugan hotel needs no mention) we were again ready for attack to Tirubhuvanam at 3.30PM. This place is famous for handmade silk sarees, but the actual range starts from Rs 6000/-. So we just had the darshan of the Lord Sarabha murthy which is a mix form of Kali, Shiva, Narasimha and Durga. This Lord is known as Kampa hareeswara.

                                            
The next location is Thiruvidai marudur, known as Madhyarjunam(from Sri Chaganti Koteswara rao gari speeches).

The deity here is Mahalingeswara and his consort is Brihat sundara kuchambal. Muukambika is also having a separate shrine here in the same complex.

Sthala puranam:

     This kshetra is in the middle region between Varanasi and Rameswaram and is considered as holy as the other two. The mode of worship is believed to be laid down by Lord Shiva himself. The massive nandi facing the main sanctum is said to have been much smaller once but began growing to alarming heights. Devotees then hammered nails on its head to stop its growth.

            A bit high up in the wall before the entrance is located the “Brahma hatti sila” the shape of which can’t be understood easily. A chola king who killed a Brahmin got Brahma hatya dosha and he got rid of that dosha by entering the Mahalingeswara temple. People here believe that the brahma hatya dosha clinges to those whoever passes through it again after the darshan of the Lord. So people leave the temple of Mahalingeswara, go to get the darshan of the Amman and go out, not to cross the sila twice before leaving the temple.  
                 After having heart-filling darshan of the aaratis at Madhyarjunam kshetra, we vacated the hotel at Kumbhakonam and headed towards Chidamram via Mailaduthurai. Noticing a nice hotel Aksharadham at Vaitheeswaran, we halted there for that night. That proved a wise decision since the service, food and location proved to be very pleasant.