Thiru Sempon Palli

Thiru Sempon Palli (105/276)

Name	Thiru Sempon Palli
Other Names	Sembian Palli Swarnapuri Indrapuri Skandapuri Lakshmipuri Semponnaar Koil
Vernacular Name	Sembanaar Koil
District	Nagapattinam
State	Tamilnadu
Devaram	Thiru Gnana Sambandhar Appar
Position	South of Kaveri – 105/276
Presiding deity	Shiva
God	Sempon Palliyaar Swarnapureeswarar
Goddess	Maruvaar Kuzhali Sugandha Vana Nayagi Sugandha Kundhalambigai Suganthalaagi Pushpalaagi Dakshayani
Speciality	Creation of Veerabhadrar to destroy Daksha Maha Yaagam was at this shrine. Murugan took the Skanda Guru Avatar here.
Sthala Vriksham	Rusty Acacia (Vanni)
Theertham	Surya Theertham Kaveri
Worshipped by	Lakshmi, Murugan, Indran, Dakshayani
Temple timings	7AM to 12PM 5PM to 8PM
Contact details	9943797974

LORE:

This presiding deity of this shrine is Lord Sempon Palliyaar and his Devi is Maruvaar Kuzhali.

Why is the village called as Thiru Sempon Palli?

The village has many names and the name sung by the Samaya Kuravargal in the Devaram is ‘Sempon Palli’. The temple is said to have had the tower of the sanctum sanctorum built in Gold, in the ancient days. That is why it is said to have been named ‘Sempon Palli’.

The presiding deity of the temple, Sempon Palliyaar is said to glow like Gold – another reason to the etymology behind the name of the village.

The village also has many other names. Mahalakshmi is said to have attained Mahavishnu after worshipping here. Hence it is called as Lakshmipuri. Murugan is said to have worshipped here to seek the blessings of Lord Sempon Palliyaar before waging the famous war against Tarakasuran and his cronies. Hence this village also acquired the name as Skandapuri. Indra Dev prayed to Lord Sempon Palliyaar and got the Vajrayudham to defeat Vritthrasuran, thereby giving the name of Indrapuri to Sempon Palli.

Another historical reason cited is that this was originally Sembian Palli. “Sembian” is a popular synonym to denote the Chozha dynasty and this is said to have morphed into Sempon Palli, with the passage of time.

What is the Lore of the temple?

The temple lore is closely related to the previous Devara Paadal Petra Sthalam, Thirupariyalur (104/276).

This is the shrine where Shiva creates Veera Bhadrar to destroy the Nireeshwara Yaagam conducted by Daksha and to punish him for being responsible for Sati’s self- immolation.

To summarise the story in brief, Aadhi-Shakti takes a corporeal form and is born as Dakshayani/Sati, to Daksha Prajapati to marry Shiva for the welfare of the cosmos. Daksha is against it because he feels Shiva is unfit to be called as Mahadeva, let alone son-in-law due to Shiva’s bizarre ascetic practices. Dakshayani eventually marries Shiva against Daksha’s wishes further infuriating him. To exact his revenge, Daksha conducts a Maha Yaagam at Thirupariyalur (104/276) with the sole intention of insulting Shiva.

Dakshayani insists on going to the Maha Yaagam, but Shiva warns her not to. She doesn’t listen and goes to the Maha Yaagam, despite Shiva’s refusal to come. Things go awry when Daksha not only insults Dakshayani but also hurls abuses on Shiva too. Unable to bear with the Shiva Nindhanai, Dakshayani self-immolates Herself, in the premise of the Maha Yaagam itself.

Shiva gets enraged on knowing this and creates Veera Bhadrar at this shrine and sends Him to Thirupariyalur (104/276) to wreak havoc on the ill-fated Maha Yaagam and to kill Daksha which Veera Bhadrar dutifully does.

The tale takes a different route with regards to Sempon Palli. The story is the same till Dakshayani reaches the sacrificial altar. After that, according to Sempon Palli temple’s version of events, Dakshayani curses Daksha that he will die for insulting Shiva, who is not merely his son-in-law, but also The Mahadeva who reigns supreme above all others in the cosmos. She then comes to Sempon Palli and meditates in Panchagni as repentance for disobeying Shiva’s words.

Shiva is said to have appeared as Sempon Palliyaar, pardoned Dakshayani and transformed Her into His consort, Maruvaar Kuzhali.

What is the speciality of this Shrine?

Maruvaar Kuzhali graces the shrine with two hands instead of the super-numerary hands Devi usually has at other shrines.

Veerabhadrar and Daksha are seen in a separate statue in the Goshtam.

Behind the Lord Sempon Palliyaar Shrine, in the Prahaaram, Murugan is in the form of Skanda Guru. He is said to have taken the form of Shiva’s aspect as the teacher and tries to advice a stubborn Dakshayani about the hazards of going uninvited and alone to a place and the woes that would befall. He is depicted as carrying an agate-rosewood-beaded wreath (Atchaya Maalai) in His upper left arm to symbolise His Skanda Guru form.

The temple is also one of the 70 Maada koils built by the Chozha king, Kochengannan. A “Maada koil” is the form of architecture where the sanctum-sanctorum is at a higher level, accessible only by a flight of stairs and a narrow gateway, both of which precludes elephants from entering the temple and worshipping the deities. It is said that Kochengannan was a spider in his previous birth and had bitter enmity towards elephants. Hence, in this jenmam as the Chozha king, he built all temples as Maada Koils in remembrance of that enmity. Kochengannan’s previous birth as an arachnid and his conflict with pachyderms is associated with the legend of the Jambukeshwarar temple of Thiruvaanaikovil (60/276)

The twists in the tale:

There are a few unanswered questions about the lore of the shrine that left the both of us pondering and seeking potential clarifications and we would like to share them with you.

• How can Dakshayani be Maruvaar Kuzhali if She self-immolated Herself at the Maha Yaagam, as it is described in Thirupariyalur (104/105) and in all the other Puranaas?
• How does Murugan become Skanda Guru and advice Dakshayani, as He wasn’t born until eons later? (Murugan is born only after Shiva re-marries Aadhi-Shakthi’s next Avatar, Parvati)
• If Dakshayani is Maruvaar Kuzhali then the whole existence of the Shakthi peedams and the story of Kaama Dahana Moorthy incinerating Kaaman at Thirukorukkai (26/276) couldn’t have happened.

Our Experience:

We were so happy and at peace with ourselves as we saw Thirupariyalur (104/276) which was the main temple that we had planned to cover. We reached Sempon Palli at around 11AM. It is a reasonably big town and as we had little more time, we decided to have breakfast. We gobbled a sumptuous plate of Poori and Pongal, upped our adrenaline with two simmering hot cups of tea, got a packet of Jaangiri to appease our sweet-tooth and were all set to go to Sempon Palli.

A major technical glitch caused due to a network error and Rahul’s impatience, resulted us in driving to the middle of nowhere because instead of driving towards the temple, we drove to the middle of the village, as google told. (The temple and the village have the same name, duh)

This cost us a solid 20 minutes lag, and we had a bickering banter about Murphy’s law and how everything that can go wrong eventually does. After calming down and extricating ourselves out of a potential war, we asked for directions from the locals (google maps still failed because of lack of a proper network) and finally reached the temple at 11.45AM.

The temple doesn’t have a Raja Gopuram. We went inside the Maada Koil and were dismayed to see the shrine of Sempon Palliyaar locked. We saw Him through the grill gate from quite afar. We then went and had a Darshan of Maruvaar Kuzhali (Locked again) and went around the Prahaaram to see Skanda Guru.

We then enquired to the temple priest as to when we can see The Lord to which we had a cheeky and rather snobbish reply from him. He actually told us “Only if I come, you can see The Lord. Don’t you lads know that it isn’t enough just to go to an ATM to withdraw money. Only if you insert the card, cash will flow”. The joke was in bad taste and left us aghast and saddened. We assumed that the priest was hot-headed because of the time we went (it was almost noon and nearing closing time). None of the locals (there were quite a few) seemed to be bothered by the fact that they had to see the Lord through the grill gate, from what seemed like leagues apart. So, we decided to come back in the evening to visit The Lord, for the second time, hoping the priest keeps the gates open at least in the evening.

After covering two more temples, we spent the rest of the noon at Poompuhaar. We covered a few more temples for the evening session and came back to Sempon Palli in the evening and were again surprised to see that the gates to the sanctum sanctorum were still closed. It was too dark to have a good darisanam with a lone desolate lamp shedding a very few rays of light on his visage and we barely managed to see Sempon Palliyaar.

But as they say, it is enough if The Lord Sempon Palliyaar sees you and Devi Maruvaar Kuzhali blesses you. With that in mind, we drove ahead, crossing the river Kaveri and chugged along to the next Devara Paadal Petra Sthalam on our list, Pallavaneswaram (10/276).

Loads of Love,

Karthick and Rahul.