|
Name |
Thiru Kaavalam Paadi |
|
District |
Nagapattinam |
|
State |
Tamil Nadu |
|
TH |
Thirumangai Azhwar |
|
Position |
Chozha Naadu (39/108) |
|
Presiding deity |
Vishnu |
|
God |
Gopala Krishnan |
|
Utsavar |
Raja Gopalan |
|
Goddess |
Madavaral Mangai Sengamala Naatchiyaar |
|
Vimanam |
Swayambhu (Vedhaamodha Vimaanam) |
|
Speciality |
One of the 11 Thiru Nangur Divya Desangal |
|
Theertham |
Thada Malar Poigai |
|
Worshipped by |
One of the Ekadasha Rudras Vishwaksenar |
|
Temple timings |
7AM to 12PM and 4PM to 8PM |
|
Contact details |
9262084905 9840060513 |
LORE:
Why does the Sthalam go by the name of “Thiru Kaavalam Paadi?
“Kaavalam” means “Grove” or “Orchard”.
This is the shrine where Lord Gopala Krishnan created the orchard for Sathyabama when she desired to have the celestial “Paarijatha flower”
It is said that the Dwarakaadeeshan Himself has come here, along with his consorts to pacify the angry Rudran.
What is the lore of the temple?
The temple shares the common lore of all the 11 Thiru Nangur Shrines and Lord Gopala Krishnan is said to have manifested to quell the anger of one of the Ekadasha Rudras, who emanated from the locks of the grief-stricken Lord Shiva, who danced the Pralaya Thandavam upon knowing the untimely demise of his then wife, Devi Sati.
The details of the story are elaborated “here”
The celestial flower:
Parijatham flower is said to have appeared from the Thiru Paarkadal (107/108) during the Samudra Mandhan and was handed over to the Devas, who planted it in Devalok. It was so powerful that it could grant anyone, whatever their hearts desire. The Parijatham tree is also called as “The Tree of the Universe”
Its earthen version is the Night-Flowering Jasmine or The Coral Jasmine.
The theft of the Parijatham – Paarijatha Haran:
The story starts with Hiranyakshan and the Varaha Avatharam. Hiranyakshan had abducted Bhu Devi and had hidden her in the depths of the Paathalam in a place called Kalakeyapuram. Lord Vishnu too the form of a wild boar – Lord Varaha and delved into the depths of Paathalam, killed Hiranyakshan and rescued Bhu Devi.
During this seemingly arduous task, The Lord was hardly perturbed. It didn’t exert him at all. However, a single drop of sweat fell from His brow on earth and it became a fully-grown man. Bhu Devi was overjoyed and she embraced the young man as Her son and named him as “Naraka”. He asked Lord Varaha to bless her son. Lord Varaha broke one of His tusks and told him that it could be used as a weapon to save himself, but to always tread on the path of Dharma.
Aeons rolled by. And then came the time of Dwapara Yug. Naraka had grown immensely powerful and had fallen astray from the path of Dharma and had become Narakasura. He had established his citadel in ‘Pragjyotishapura’. He had surrounded that fortress with four rings of protection. Rocks, fire, spears and the innermost ring of water. His most trusted lieutenant was a demon called “Mura” who guarded the citadel.
Drunk with power, Narakasura wreaked havoc upon the denizens of all the 14 worlds. He raised an army and raided the celestial Devalok, imprisoned 16,000 women and stole the ear-rings of Adhithi, the mother of all the devas.
Dwapara Yug was the reign of Lord Krishna. When everyone had enough of the atrocities of the demon Narakasura, they prayed to Lord Krishna to intervene and save them from his reign of terror.
Sathyabama was one of the consorts of Lord Krishna and was the incarnation of Bhu Devi. She agreed that Narakasura’s end should be brought about and decides to accompany The Lord to battle the demon.
They fly to Pragjyotishapura and break all the four rings of protection, kill the demon lieutenant Mura and summon Narakasura for what would eventually become his last battle. (Lord Krishna is called as Murari because he killed the demon, Mura)
Lord Krishna and Narakasura fought day and night. They were evenly matched. Astra after Astra, Lord Krishna was beginning to overpower the demon. The demon then summoned the tusk of Lord Varaha and flung it at Lord Krishna. It hit The Lord directly in the chest and He fell unconscious.
Sathyabama who was watching all this was enraged on seeing Her beloved Husband temporarily knocked out of consciousness. She got so furious that she picked up battle gear and continued the fight with Narakasura.
The demon was no match for the fury of Devi Sathyabama and was beginning to lose ground. Meanwhile, Lord Krishna also arose, recovering from the shattering attack of the tusk of Lord Varaha. Together, Devi Sathyabama and Lord Krishna killed the demon Narakasura.
Lord Krishna then decided to return the stolen ear-rings of Adhithi, the mother of the devas. He flew on Garuda, along with Sathyabama to Amaravati, the capital of Paradise, to meet Adhithi and handover her ear-rings, in person, out of respect for her.
\Adhithi was overjoyed with the news of the death of Narakasura and the release of the 16,000 women (who eventually wed Lord Krishna) more than the return of her stolen ear-rings. She blessed The Lord and His Devi, Sathyabama.
As they were about to leave, a breeze brought in an enchantingly tantalising fragrance. When Sathyabama about it The Lord replied that it was the fragrance of the celestial Parijatham. Sathyabama desired a flower from the tree for Herself and asked the guards of the grove to give her one. But the guards had to ask Devi Sachi, the queen of Amravati, the Indrani, the wife of Indra Dev permission as the tree was gifted to her by Indra dev.
The haughty queen denied Sathyabama the flower from the tree as she felt that Sathyabama was a mere mortal woman. This enraged Sathyabama. She wanted to teach the residents a lesson in humility and to treat guests with honour and decorum.
She asked Krishna for the entire tree saying that she wanted to plant the tree in Dwaraka in her own grove, for the benefit of Her subjects. Lord Krishna, the dutiful husband, the loyal lover, the sly butter-thief quietly went and uprooted the celestial tree.
Lord Krishna and Sathyabama along with the celestial Parijatham tree were about to leave Devalok, when everyone realised what was going on. Devi Sachi goaded her husband to fight against Lord Krishna and retrieve the tree, as it became a matter or pride and honour now.
Indra dev and the other Devas began to fight against Lord Krishna and Sathyabama. But their missiles were no match for Garuda who effortlessly disposed them off.
Indra gave chase to them on his elephant mount, Airavatham. He was angry and restless and he took out his Vajrayudham to defeat Lord Krishna. Upon seeing the Vajrayudham, Lord Krishna lifts His finger and the fiery Sudarshan Chakra appear blazing on it.
While Indra dev hurled his most powerful weapon against The Lord, Sathyabama wanting to avoid the clash of the Vajrayudham and the Sudarshan Chakra, decided to end the battle. She smiles and merely presses the shoulder of The Lord. The Lord turns and takes a look at Her calm yet breathtakingly magnificent radiance and His anger dissipates. The Chakra too disappears. With His usual mischievous glint in His Lotus-like-eyes, He faces the oncoming Vajrayudham casually.
When the Astra reached Him, he deftly held it in His arms as though it were a fragile twig. Indra got scared on seeing this and then realised who he was dealing with. In that moment, he saw Lord Mahavishnu and Bhu Devi standing in front of him. He panicked and tried to leave the battle.
Sathyabama summons him back and tells him that she really has no interest in his precious tree. She has Her Lord Krishna by Her side and that was all that mattered. She then told Indra Dev that this was a lesson to Indra Dev and Devi Sachi for insulting her by disrespecting her human legacy and for ill-treating The Lord and Herself, who had come as guests to Amaravati.
Indra Dev realised her folly and asked them to keep the tree in Dwaraka itself and declared that it was his token of his repentance and the tree would return to Devalok at the end of the Dwapara Yug.
Sathyabama was so proud of her achievement in bringing the tree to Dwaraka. She teased Devi Rukmini that her garden will have the celestial Parijatham tree. Devi Rukmini politely told that all She was bothered about was the devotion to Lord Krishna and it did not matter as to where the tree was.
The tree was then planted in the garden of Sathyabama, but the cheeky Lord Krishna planted it in such a way that though the tree was in the garden of Sathyabama, the flowers would fall in the courtyard of the garden of Devi Rukmini.
Devi Sathyabama realised that even devotion will be pure only when it is humble and devoid of any form of pride and pomp.
Kaavalam Paadi and Parijatham:
Sathyabama desired an orchard of Her own with the Parijatham flowers and She conveyed her yearning to Lord Krishna. The Lord created this serene orchard and planted a Parijatham offspring here.
The grove of Kaavalam Paadi is still filled with lush greenery and the temple is in the midst of tall trees and bountiful fields and flowering groves.
What are the other specialities of the shrine?
- The Lord in the sanctum sanctorum is holding a whip in his hand, signifying His cowherd roots
- He is in standing posture flanked by Devi Rukmini and Devi Sathyabama on either side.
- The Utsavar wears his trademark Yadava cap and is such an amazing sight to behold.
- There is no separate shrine for Thaayaar. (No Thani Kovil Naatchiyaar)
Our Experience:
We had visited this shrine six times, and we were able to see Lord Gopala Krishnan only ONCE. The mischief-maker always eludes us. Almost none of our planned trips to meet him end in fruition.
The first two times were in vain as we had no idea of the temple timing and were wondering as to why the temple was always closed. The third time we missed it because the priest had a condolence in his family.
The fourth time we missed it was during the Eleven Garuda Sevai Festival, because we started late and had no idea that all the shrines (except Thiru Vella Kulam and Thiru Mani Maada Kovil) would be closed during the festival.
The fifth time was when Lord Krishna relented, possibly fed up of our insistence to see Him and it was the best of our escapades to Thiru Nangur.
Kaavalam Paadi, like most of the Thiru Nangur Divya Desangal is a very small hamlet and does not have any flower vendors or shops. The priest told us that he always keeps the temple closed, except for the morning and evening aarthi as there are many vandals in the local area ho would desecrate the shrine.
We saw Lord Gopala Krishnan standing so elegantly with a whip in his hand. He had donned His trademark Yadava style cap, which is so iconic, that He is the only one whom we can instantly identify in the Eleven Garuda Utsavam. All the other 10 Utsava deities look almost exactly the same while standing on their Garuda mounts.
This fifth visit was unique in one more way as we had undertaken the daunting task of completing all the 11 Thiru Nangur Divya Desangal in one evening (and we actually succeeded in visiting all of them because of the blessings of The Lord).
We started at Thiru Kaavalam Paadi (27/108) at 1748 Hrs and finally finished at Thiru Paarthan Palli (40/108) at 2028 Hrs, offering our prayers at all the 11 temples. Lord Gopala Krishnan left us elated in joy as we had completed what seemed a nearly impossible feat of worshipping all the eleven Thiru Nangur Divya Desangal in a span of 160 minutes.
Coming to the sixth time, we had a funny experience. We started out to see Him on a Sunday evening (01.03.2020). We were in Thiru Nangur by 1620 Hrs. We knew that Thiru Kaavalam Paadi will be open only at 1700 Hrs. So, we had gone to another temple and were on our way to try to see Lord Gopala Krishnan.
He had no intentions of letting us have it that easy. We had gone on a two-wheeler and there was a sudden burst in the rear tyre. The tube had melted in friction and now we had a flat tire. We had to walk, dragging the heavy Honda Activa with us to the nearest hub called Mangai Madam. All the mechanic shops were closed as it was a Sunday evening. We tried ringing their numbers and conveniently nobody lifted our calls.
We eventually found a mechanic shop in the other end of the town. The mechanic was in a sour mood and it took him almost an hour to fix us up. We were dehydrated and tired. But still it was 1830 Hrs and we rushed to Thiru Kaavalam Paadi.
The gates were shut. We asked the locals and it was a bittersweet moment when we were told that we missed the priest by a mere 10 minutes. SIGH.
“Oh, Kanhaiya, we aren’t done with you yet. We will not rest until we have seen You to our hearts content.”
A valuable tip from us is to contact the priest one day prior and make arrangements to have a hassle-free darisanam.
With this post, the travelogues of the eleven Thiru Nangur Divya Desangal come to an end. See you folks at the next Divya Desam, Thiruvaali – Thiru Nagari (35/108), a shrine closely associated with Thiru Nangur, Thirumangai Azhwar, the Eleven Garuda Sevai Utsavam and the Vedupari Utsavam.
Loads of love,
Karthick and Rahul