Pallavaneswaram

Thiru Pallavaneecharam (10/276)

Name	Thiru Pallavaneecharam
Vernacular Name	Kaveri Poompattinam Poompuhar
District	Nagapattinam
State	Tamilnadu
Devaram	Thiru Gnana Sambandhar Appar
Position	North of Kaveri – 10/276
Presiding deity	Shiva
God	Pallavaneshwarar Pallavanathar
Goddess	Soundarya Nayagi
Speciality	Pattinathar Avadhaara Sthalam
Sthala Vriksham	Jasmine (Malligai)
Theertham	Janavi Theertham Kaveri Sangamam
Worshipped by	Kuberan, Kaalava Munivar, Agasthyar
Temple timings	7AM to 12PM 5PM to 8PM
Contact details	9443719193
Location	The temple is situated on the Mayiladuthurai – Sembanar Koil route. Mayiladuthurai is 10 Kms away and Sembanar Koil is 4 Kms away
Exact Google Map Location	11°08’49.0"N 79°49’47.6"E
How to reach	Take a cab or auto from Sembanar Koil or Mayiladuthurai
Accommodation	If you’re planning to visit temples nearby, stay at Mayiladuthurai

LORE:

This presiding deity of this shrine is Lord Pallavaneshwarar and his Devi is Soundarya Nayagi

What is the Lore of the temple?

The temple is situated at the confluence of the river Kaveri into the Bay of Bengal. The town is called as Kaveri-poom-pattinam (Kaveri puhum Pattinam).

The Lord of this shrine is said to have been worshipped by Kaalava Rishi, the rishi who married off all his 365 daughters to Lord Varaha Moorthy of Thiruvidandhai (one of the 108 Vaishnava Divya Desangal).

The temple is said to have been built by the Pallava kings, hence the name Pallavaneecharam.

What is the speciality of this Shrine?

This shrine is the place where Pattinathar became a Sanyasi.

There is a separate shrine for Pattinathar in the temple and it is he who is celebrated in the Temple Brahmostsavam. Lord Pallavaneshwarar takes second place in the festival. Hence the festival is called as ‘Adiyaar Utsavam’.

There is a beautiful idol of Goddess Parvathi with Lord Murugan seated on Her lap. This is Her “Guhambigai” roobam, which is an exquisite sight to behold.

The Nataraja Sabha at this temple bears a striking semblance to the Sabha at Chidambaram (1/276).

The Lord faces the East, towards the Bay of Bengal all the Nava Grahams face The Lord towards the West.

What is the story of Pattinathar?

Long ago, there lived a pious couple called Sivanesan and Gnana Kamalambigai. They were of the Nagarathaar community and Sivanesan was a seafarer and a wealthy merchant. They were deeply devoted to The Lord Swetharanyeshwarar of Thiruvenkaadu (11/276). To their delight, their first-born was a girl who was named as Thillaiammai. They were then blessed with a boy. Legend says that the boy was none other than Kuberan, The Lord of wealth. They named him “Thiruvenkaadar” after the Lord of Thiruvenkaadu (11/276).

He grew up to be an able merchant, much like his father. He was married to a girl called Sivakalai at the age of 16 years. They were living a content life. Alas, they did not have a child of their own. Thiruvenkaadar and Sivakalai prayed to the Lord for a child.

The Lord of Thiruvidaimarudhur (93/276), Mahalinga Swamy decided to put an end to their woes. He appeared in the dream of a poor couple called Sivasarman and Suseelai. He told them to go to the temple where they would find a baby boy and asked them to take the baby to Kaveripoompattinam. He also instructed them to give the baby to the childless Thiruvenkaadar-Sivakalai and to ask for gold equal to the weight of the baby to absolve them of their poverty.

The couple duly obliged and took the baby to Thiruvenkaadar. He was more than delighted to adopt the child. Little did he know that the child was Lord Shiva, Himself. Since the baby was given to them as a result of the grace of Lord Mahalinga Swamy of Thiruvidaimarudhur (93/276), they named the baby as “Marudha Vaanan”

Much like his dad, Marudha Vaanan also grew up to be an able seafarer, learning all the tips and tricks of the trade. He decided to go out to the sea in search of riches. His parents were proud of their ambitious child and they sent him (rather reluctantly as he was still young, in his mid-teens).

News of raging storms ravaging the waves of the Bay of Bengal reached Thiruvenkaadar who feared the safety of his boy. But, Marudha Vaanan returned safely claiming that he had found treasures beyond measure. Thiruvenkaadar was pleased. When he went to the port to see the riches brought by his son, he was dismayed. All the ships had gunny bags filled with dried husk and dung-cakes. He also found that Marudha Vaanan had kept proper records of the trading these dried husk and dung cakes with other merchants.

He scolded his son for bringing disrepute to his merchant lineage and reprimanded him for being so fool-hardy and claimed that he was unfit to continue the legacy of the merchant trade. Marudha Vaanan smiled knowingly and said that he wanted to go meet his mother and left the port.

Thiruvenkaadar was so irked by the sight of the dried husk and dung cakes that he threw them on the floor. The husk turned into gold dust and strings of precious gems, pearls, rubies, sapphires and topazes rolled out of the dung cakes. He was so surprised at the miracle and rushed home to meet Madhavaram.

Meanwhile, Marudha Vaanan went to his mother and gave her an ornate casket and asked her to give it to his father. By the time she could keep the casket in the safe and return, the boy was nowhere to be found. Marudha Vaanan had disappeared. Thiruvenkaadar asked the whereabouts of his boy to which Sivakalai told that he had vanished into thin air, but he had given a special casket to her and had told her to give it to Thiruvenkaadar, once he returned from the port.

Upon opening the casket, there was an eyeless needle and a note inscribed on a palm leaf. The note read “Kaadhu attra oosiyum vaaraadhu Kaanum Kadai Vazhikkey”. (Even an eyeless needle will not come with you in the end of the journey). Thiruvenkaadar then realised the truth. However much a man accumulates material wealth in his life, he cannot even take with him something as useless as an eyeless needle with him in the end.

He then renounced his material wealth and his worldly possessions and his family. He came to Pallavaneecharam and prayed to The Lord to give him salvation. The Lord blessed him saying that in due course of time that which he seeks will be given.

He gave up everything including his refined attire and jewels and lived like a pauper, begging for food along the way and undertook an ascetic life. He promised his aging mother Gnana Kamalambigai that he will not leave the town till she lived and that he would do his duty as a son and light her funeral pyre once her time in this world is over.

Thiruvenkaadar composed many songs in simple mellifluent sweetened Tamizh about the Lord and got the name as Pattinathar, after the town’s name Kaveripoompattinam. Eventually, his mother attained Shivaloga Praapthi. The relatives did not want the aloof mendicant to light the pyre. Hence, they had kept wooden logs around her body and were about to begin the rites of cremation. But Pattinathar came to the crematorium and removed all the wooden logs and replaced them with plantain piths and leaves. He sang hymns on motherhood and the how he had to light the funeral pyre of his beloved mother. The pyre made of green piths and leaves started to burn and people finally acknowledged his sainthood.

The jealous elder sister, who wanted to swindle all Pattinathar’s wealth decided to poison him and kill him. She was influenced by evil thoughts and appeased her conscience by saying that her younger brother had gone astray and brought dishonour to the family name and deserves to be punished.

She invited him to her home and offered him Appam, his favourite delicacy. She had prepared the Appam and added poison to it. She offered it to Pattinathar. On touching the appam, Pattinathar realised that it was poisoned. He admonished his sister for such an act of guile and threw the appam on the roof and uttered “Than vinai thannai sudum, ottu appam veetai sudum” (Your vile acts will incinerate you, the appam on the roof will burn the house).

The house instantly caught fire and started to burn. His sister understood her folly and realised the truth in the age-old saying of “as you sow, so shall you reap”.

Pattinathar then went on a pilgrimage and his travels took him to Ujjain of Bengal, where he chanced to meet the king of the land, Bharthari. The two had a discussion on sanyasa and Samsaara and Pattinathar told the king that all women have dual mind and that even Goddess Parvathi might not be an exemption to the rule. The king was taken aback and refused to accept Pattinathar’s view.

Pattinathar, by means of his Siddhi, brought and gave the king a celestial fruit from Devalok. The king out of his affection to his youngest wife, Ananga Sena, gave the fruit to her. Ananga Sena was smitten by the chief of military, Mahipaala. So, she gave the fruit to him out of her lust. Mahipaala too had a secret crush on another woman called Lakha, who was one of the queen’s maids of honour. He gave the fruit to her, as a token of his love. Lakha, finally, presented the celestial fruit to the king, himself as she was in love with him.

The fruit had made a full circle and came back to the king, himself. When the king confronted Ananga Sena, she seduced the king and blamed Pattinathar for sowing discord in the royal household. She ordered her handmaids to feed the king with intoxicating wine continuously and kept the king ensconced in a state of eternal drunken stupor.

She then ordered the arrest of Pattinathar who did not flinch and conceded with the arrest and said that this was all the leela of Lord Shiva. She ordered the execution of the saint in a very cruel and torturous way. The guards were ordered to hoist the saint atop the sharpened, pointed and oiled trunk of a tree, which would eventually tear the saint into two halves. The gruesome punishment was called as “Kazhu Maram Etrudhal” and was reserved only for the most heinous crimes.

By divine intervention, the trunk of the tree started to burn the moment Pattinathar was taken near it. When Ananga Sena heard of this, she ordered that the saint to be jailed and visited him in incarceration. She warned him that there shall be no more miracles and that his death was imminent. Pattinathar said in resolute calmness that he was ready to die even in that moment if it was The Lord’s will.

King Bharthari eventually woke up from his drunken stupor and found his beloved Ananga Sena enthralled in the throes of his own horseman. He then realised what had happened and ordered the release of Pattinathar. He then renounced the throne and deigned his younger brother Vikramaditya as the new king.

He then pleaded to Pattinathar to accept him as his disciple. The saint refused saying that a king of royal blood will not be truly ready for the ascetic life of a hermit. The king threw away all his status symbols and wore only a loin cloth and eventually succeeded in convincing Pattinathar to accept him as a disciple.

(There are a few other versions of the tale. According to a different lore, Pattinathar was seated in a temple in Ujjain, deep in meditation, when a thief who stole the royal pearls came there. He was on the run from the guards who were chasing him. To escape from them he had placed the pearl necklace on the meditating saint and ran away. The guards who were chasing the dacoit see the pearl necklace on the neck of Pattinathar and arrested him. Pattinathar was produced in the court and there he was sentenced to death by the Kazhu Maram by the king Bharthari. The rest of the events that follow are the same)

On the way from Ujjain, the once-king Bharthari, saw a begging-bowl. He took it and told Pattinathar that it would be useful while asking alms. The saint asked him to dispose it as it was still considered as a material possession and will only distance him from attaining true salvation. Bharthari, now called as Bharathagiriyaar by the people of the south, refused to part with the bowl.(He is also known as ‘Bhadragiri’ in some texts)

Then Bharathagiriyaar came across a dog, who started to follow the duo. He got attached to the dog and started feeding it and taking care of it, much to the chagrin of Pattinathar. They finally reached Thiruvidaimarudhur (93/276) and lived in the temple premises.

Mahalinga Swamy decided to play with his devotees. He came as an aged and ailing man and asked for alms from Pattinathar. Pattinathar told that he is a mendicant and doesn’t have anything to give and directed the old man to the west entrance of the temple and told that there would be a man who is a Samsaari and is richer than himself and that he might be able to help.

The Lord went to the other entrance and saw Bharathagiriyaar with his begging bowl and his pet dog. He told the ex-king what Pattinathar had told and immediately Bharathagiriyaar felt remorseful. He understood that even trivial things like a begging bowl and a pet dog will delay him from salvation. He threw the bowl on the dog, which killed the dog, breaking the bowl into pieces in the process. Lord Mahalinga Swamy, who had come as the old man, then disappeared.

The two saints spent a few decades in the temple. Then the king of Kasi came to Thiruvidaimarudhur (93/276) with his daughter. He went to meet Bharathagiriyaar. And told him that his daughter wanted to live with him and spend her life in his service. The saint was taken aback and asked her what the connection between a fine princess of Kasi like herself and an ascetic like him was. The princess replied that in the previous birth she was the dog who was fed by Bharathagiriyaar and was now reborn as the princess of Kasi after being hit by the begging bowl, in the previous birth as a dog. Bharathagiriyaar was frantic and hastened to Pattinathar and asked him to solve this crisis. Pattinathar explained that this was the result of his karma and his attachment to material things and even something as trivial as a begging bowl and something as unassuming as petting a dog will have its accumulated karma. He then asked Bharathagiriyaar to pray to Lord Mahalinga Swamy.

Bharathagiriyaar cantered into the temple, deftly followed by the princess of Kasi. Both darted into the sanctum sanctorum and disappeared into Lord Mahalinga Swamy. The Lord gave salvation to both. For Pattinathar it was a bittersweet moment. Though he was elated at the thought that his disciple was given salvation, his heart ached to attain the same. He prayed fervently to the Lord and asked him to absolve his karma. The Lord then gave him a salty sugarcane (Pei Karumbu) and asked him to undertake the final pilgrimage of his mortal existence. The Lord had decreed that Pattinathar would be given salvation once the salt sugarcane tastes sweet.

Pattinathar then carried the salty sugarcane and went to many temples. He finally arrived at Thiruvottriyur (253/276) and was exalted to find that the sugarcane tasted sweet. He was overjoyed. He demonstrated many miracles to the children around that area and sat in the state of Samadhi, nearby the temple.

Our Experience:

We drove to Pallavaneswaram (10/276) from Thiru Sempon Palli (105/276) and were again lost because of the faulty GPS. We could have asked for directions in the town, but we were so used to following google maps, that lead us to the middle of nowhere.

Ironically, the temple was right on the highway, with a small arch pointing the way. We retraced our steps, back to the temple and reached there exactly by 12 noon. The priest was not there, but the temple was open.

The Raja-gopuram has so many beautiful sculptures. We had a peaceful darisanam of the Lord and His Devi. We also worshipped at the Pattinathar shrine. The Vimanam of Pattinathar shrine has his entire family and his disciple, Bharathagiriyaar.

We then spent a little time at the temple pond, doing silly antics and then decided to call it a day for the morning session. The marathon of visiting six temples was complete and we were more than content. We were supposed to break for lunch and take a quick tour of the heritage town of Kaveripoompattinam, rest for an hour or two and then resume our pilgrimage.

Apparently, The Lord had decided otherwise. We suddenly had the brainwave to check out the next Paadal Petra Sthalam on our list, Thiru Chaaikaadu (09/276) just to make sure, we are familiar with the route, so that we can have a hassle free darisanam, unlike the previous two temples. And guess what happened?

Well, read up our trip to the next temple to find out. The 10^th Paadal Petra Sthalam beckons us. Onward to Thiru Chaaikaadu (10/276).

Loads of love,

Karthick and Rahul.