Month: December 2019

THIRU VIZHAL NAGAR (103/276)

Name	Thiru Vizhal Nagar
Other Names	Thirvilanagar
District	Nagapattinam
State	Tamilnadu
Devaram	Thiru Gnana Sambandhar
Position	South of Kaveri – 103/276
Presiding deity	Shiva
God	Ujjira Vaneshwarar Thurai Kaatum Vallal Kaveri Thurai Kaatiya Naadhar
Goddess	Vei Tholi Ammai, Veyuru Tholi Ammai, Thurai Kaatum Valli
Sthala Vriksham	Grass (Vizhal Pul) – Dineria hohenakeri
Theertham	Kaveri Mei Gnana Poigai
Worshipped by	Arulvithan
Temple timings	6AM to 12PM 6PM to 8PM (Temple is mostly closed, don’t go by the board, Call the priest in advance)
Contact details	04364-282129

Lore:

The presiding deity of the shrine is Ujjira Vaneshwarar

Why is the village called as Thiru Vizhal Nagar?

The locale was abundant with a luxuriant and teeming grass called Vizhal Pul and hence the village acquired the name of Thiru Vizhal Nagar which later got attenuated to Thiruvila nagar

Why is the Lord Ujjira Vaneshwarar called as Thurai Kaatum Vallal?

Once upon a time when there was a boy called Arul Viththan who used to worship The Lord of this shrine daily. He used to bring flowers from the other side of the river Kaveri for offering to Ujjiravaneshwarar. Once, The Lord decided to test the boy’s devotion and caused a flood to happen in the river as he was crossing it. The boy was struggling to hold on to the flowers in the basket that he had so lovingly collected for the Lord, instead of throwing them away and swimming to safety. The Lord then appeared and showed him the bank to climb upon and ensured his safety. Hence, He is called Thurai Kaatum Vallal.

Eons later, when Thiru Gnana Sambandhar wanted to visit this shrine, he was stopped by a raging deluge in the river Kaveri. He frantically called out for help “Yaarenum ivvidathil Thurai kaata ulleero?”. Ujjiravaneshwarar paid heed to the plea and came as a hunter and showed him the bank to cross over the river and finally Thiru Gnana Sambandhar worshipped this shrine and sang a Devara padhigam on the presiding Deity.

What does the name of the Goddess Vei Tholi Ammai mean?

The Goddess here is called as Vei Tholi Ammai or Veyuru Tholi Ammai. “Vei” means Bamboo. The Goddess is said to have slender delicate shoulders like that of a bamboo. Yet, She carries a Discus and a Conch and is poised ready to strike down the distress of Her Devotees.

Our Experience:

We became wiser as we slowly understood the remote nature of many of these temples. We were actively looking for flowers to offer to The Deities. We came across a flower-vendor and bought Arali and Saamandhi flowers for the Lord and His Lady. We were warned that goats ran amok in the shrine and that the flowers should be kept high on a pedestal else the goats would eat them before they can be offered to The Lord. Warily, we drove further to the temple premises. We were greeted by a newly renovated Raja gopuram of 5 tiers, still under the process of painting. The walls are still in ruins and perhaps will be renovated in steps.

The temple is quite big with two corridors. The temple was open, but the main shrines were closed as the priest was not there, inspite of it being 10AM. We prayed to Thurai Kaatum Vallal and Vei Tholi Ammai to bless us and kept the flowers atop the Undiyal so that the priest might take them when he comes back. By the time we worshipped the Goshta Moorthangal in the Prahaaram and came back, four goats had craftily climbed on top of the Undiyal and had dragged down the Saamandhi garland and were busy munching it. They dint touch the Arali flowers because they might have found the xerophyte flowers to be distasteful.

In the Prahaaram, there is a small flowerbed besides the eight-armed Durga Shrine which has the Vizhal Pul, the Sthala Vriksham of this shrine.

We had a peaceful darisanam and were on our way to an another amazing Paadal Petra Sthalam which was the highlight of our pilgrimage, one of the Atta Veerataanangal, Thiru Pariyalur (104/276). We are so excited, folks. See you there

Loads of love,

Karthick and Rahul

THIRININDRIYUR (19/276)

Name	Thirinindriyur
Other Names	Thiru Nindriyur
District	Nagapattinam
State	Tamilnadu
Devaram	One of the 44 Moovar Paadal petra Sthalangal
Position	North of Kaveri – 19/276
Presiding deity	Shiva
God	Mahalakshmiswarar Lakshmipureeswarar
Goddess	Ulaga Nayagi
Speciality	Anusham Star parihara sthalam
Sthala Vriksham	Wood Apple (Vilvam)
Theertham	Neela Malar Poigai Mahalakshmi Theertham Parashurama Theertham
Worshipped by	Mahalakshmi, Jamadagni, Parashuram, Indra Dev and his pachyderm Airavatham, Sage Agathiyar and the Chozha king who discovered The Deity
Special Prayer	Sandal paste with Pomegranate seeds Alangaram to Mahalaksmiswarar Pithru Poojai Pariharam Akshya thrithiyai Poojai
Temple timings	6AM to 12PM 5PM to 8PM
Contact details	9846141430

Lore:

The presiding deity of the shrine is Mahalakshmiswarar who was worshipped by Devi Mahalakshmi. The village also goes by the name Thiru Nindriyur as Mahalakshmi resides here. (Thiru = Goddess of Wealth, Mahalakshmi)

Why is the village called as Thirinindriyur?

Legend has it that a Chozha king used to go to the Chidambaram temple through this village. Whenever the king and his entourage used to cross this place, the lamps that were carried by his retinue went off. The king was surprised by this astonishing act. He wanted to know the reason as to why the lamps went off whenever he crossed this village.

Then a cowherd who was grazing nearby (it was actually our dear Aadalvallaan in disguise) asked the king what was troubling his mind. The king dutifully told his woe to the cowherd. He then told the king that there was a Shivalingam worshipped by Mahalakshmi in this village and that one of his cows was pouring milk on The Lingam and that could be the reason as to why the lamps were going off.

The king set out to find this miraculous lingam and was enthralled when he saw Mahalakshmiswarar. He decided to uproot the Lingam and take Him to Chidambaram with him. Hence, he asked his men to unearth The Lingam. Surprisingly, the moment the spears hit the earth, it fell on The Lingam and there was a torrential bout of bleeding. The king realised that Mahalakshmiswarar wanted to stay in Lakshmipuri. He atoned for his mistake and built a temple in the same spot. As the wicks (Thiri) of the lamps stopped burning at this village, it got the name Thirinindriyur.

What is the connection between Jamadagni Rishi, Lord Parashuram and this shrine?

Parashuram was the sixth Avatar of Mahavishnu. He was one of the five sons of Jamadagni rishi (one of the saptha rishis) and Renuka Devi. Renuka Devi was so piously devout to her husband that her pativrata dharmam manifested tremendous powers. She could hold the soil of the riverbank with her palms, shape it up into a vessel and carry water in it to her hermitage for domestic usage and for her husband’s austerities.

One day, Renuka Devi went to the river and was as usual planning to make a vessel out of the river sand. While she was in the river waters, she saw the reflection of a handsome Gandharva Purushan, who was flying on a chariot in the sky. Enchanted by his beauty and charm, she lost her composure for a moment. She quickly realised her folly and went on to make the vessel from the river soil. Regrettably, the sands dint hold together. Her prowess failed to help her as her heart flinched momentarily from her devotion to her husband. She feared facing Jamadagni Rishi and dint return to the hermitage.

Meanwhile at the hermitage, Jamadagni realised what happened using his divine sight and was enraged. He sought his elder sons (Vaasu, ViswaVaasu, Brihu-Dhyanu and Bhritwa-kanwa) and instructed them to carry out his orders and behead Renuka Devi for her lack of restraint and immodesty. Being fond of their mother, the sons refused. Jamadagni got infuriated at their refusal and cursed them all to become stones, for their indignant denial and disrespect towards their father.

He then went to Ram, his youngest son and ordered him to behead Renuka Devi (He was just Ram back then, also called as Bargawa Ram or scion of the Brighu clan to differentiate Him from Ram of the Raghu Vamsam. The Parashu or Axe was acquired much later and it was then that He was glorified with the epithet as Parashu Ram). Parashuram obeyed without a moment of hesitation and immediately went to the riverbank and beheaded Renuka Devi and returns to the hermitage.

Jamadagni was pleased with this act of blind and loyal devotion of Parashuram and granted him two boons. Parashuram used those two boons and asked Jamadagni to revive Renuka Devi and restore life to the stones that were previously his elder brothers. Jamadagni did as requested by his son and there was peace (a very brief period of apparent tranquillity) at the hermitage.

Parashuram and Jamadagni then came here to Thirinindriyur and installed two Lingams and worshipped them to absolve for the sin of murder and abetment of murder. The two Lingams are respectively called as Parashurameshwarar and Jamadagnishwarar. They are in the outer Praharam along with Mahavishnu and Mahalakshmi.

Parashuram also gave 360 units of land to the temple and assigned 300 andhanargal to do Nithya pooja in the temple, using the income from one unit of land per day.

Karma had a different twist for this boy who lived a peaceful existence in a forest hermitage. From this seemingly peaceful and happy family, Parashuram was ripped apart and morphed into the vengeful Avatar of slaughter and carnage, which had the most violent and gory bloodshed, in the history of all time. (Parashurama Charitram will be discussed in its entirety in the subsequent posts)

What are the other historical details of this temple?

The Devara Padhigams describe this temple as a Maada Koil built by Kochengannan, a Chozha king. Kochengannan built around 70 Maada Koils, which are a specific style of architecture where the sanctum sanctorum is placed at a higher elevation from the ground, requiring steps to climb and access it and had narrow doorways, effectively prohibiting elephants from entering the temple. Kochengannan was said to have been a spider in his previous birth and had an innate hatred for elephants because of the fight that happened between the arachnoid form of the king and an elephant over the worship of another famous Shiva Lingam, Jambukeshwarar. But more about that in another post, where we shall see another Paadal petra Sthalam, the legendary Thiruvaanaikovil (60/276)

The Maada koil is said to have fallen to disarray because of natural calamities and/or lack of maintenance. The fallen temple was renovated 100 years ago by the Nagarathaar to its present stature.

In the Navagraha shrine, Surya dev and Chandra Dev are seen facing each other and hence the temple is auspicious for doing pooja for ancestors as it’s a Pithru pooja sthalam.

There are three temple tanks which adorn the temple complex in the form of a necklace viz, Neela Malar Poigai, Mahalakshmi theertham and Parashurama Theertham.

Our Experience:

We came directly to the shrine from Kurumaanakudi (17/276) and were greeted by a big puddle of rain in front of the Raja gopuram. We waded our way inside to see a massive temple complex. The temple is in ruins with creepers growing from all the crevices of the raja gopuram and even the walls of the shrine have started to fall apart in certain places.

The priest was there and gave us a brief introduction to the temple. The sanctum sanctorum has Mahalakshmiswarar, gracing upon us in all His glory. There is a dent in the Moola Moorthy, which is reminiscent of the Chozha king’s feeble attempt to uproot The Lingam. Ulaga Nayagi Ambal is to the left of Mahalakshmiswarar.

Then we come out to the huge open Prahaaram and pray to all the goshta moorthangal. Jamadagnishwarar, Parashurameshwarar and Mahalakshmi Devi’s Moorthy are of special importance at this shrine. Mahalakshmiswarar, The Lord who blessed Mahalakshmi, Jamadagni, Parashuram, Indra Dev and his pachyderm Airavatham, Sage Agathiyar and the Chozha king who discovered The Deity, blessed this meandering duo too.

We had a hearty darisanam and quickly started to the next Paadal petra sthalam on our list, Thiru Vizhar Nagar (103/276). See you there, folks.

Loads of love,

Karthick and Rahul