Posted
by Shamala Krishnan
- Krishnapuram:
Krishnapuram is 13 kms SW from Thirunelveli town on the bank of Thamirabarani River.
Main deity and Urchavar in the temple are Venkatachalapathy, Sridevi and Bhoodevi. The temple has three prakarams and as we go around we see thayar sannidhi of SriVaramangai.
Other deities we see in the temple are Garudan, and twelve Azwars.
As we enter the temple there is a big mandapam with pillars to sides. There are huge beautiful sculptures to pillars on either side. The temple is well known for its sculptures.
Stone inscriptions are found which says Vijayanagara king; Krishnappa Nayakar expanded the temple and got the sculptures done on pillars.
- Sri Vaikundam:
The temple is one of 108 Divya Desam and one of Nava Tirupathy.
The place is about 26 kms from Thirunelveli town on the banks of River Thamirabarani.
The temple main Raja gopuram is of 9 stories with three prakarams around the main sanctum.We enter into mandapam with pillars and as we go in we see Sri Ramar and sreenivasar sanctums.
There is a Dwajasthambam and Garudazwar in front facing the main deity. We have darshan of Lakshmi Narashimar and Dasavatharam sculptures here.
Main deity is Sri Vaikundanadhan in standing posture with Adiseshan’s five heads like an umbrella for him. Normally we see him in relaxing posture when he is with Adiseshan, but this is the only place where he is standing which is unique.
There are two Thayar sannidhi. One is Vaikundavalli Thayar and the other one Soranadha Nayaki Thayar. Teertham of this temple is Brugu teertham, River Thamirabarannnni, and Kalasa teertham.
Other deities in the temple are Santhana Garudan, Krishnan, Lakshmi Narashiman, Manavala Mamuni, Thiru Venkatamudayan and Hanuman.
Urchavar of the temple is known as Kallarbiran with Sridevi and Bhoodevi placed inside the sanctum in front of main deity.
Purana says once rakshas Somukan took the Vedas from Brahma. To get back the Vedas, Brahama penenced here and got it with lords blessings. There was a thief Karadushanan who used to give half of his wealth which he steals.
Once he was arrested and put into jail when he tried to steal in palace. He thought of Vaikundanadhan at the time when he was caught. So Vaikundanadhan appeared as Karadushanan in front of King and discussed about principles, and created a good opinion about him.
King thought he was a yogi, at this time Lord revealed himself. King and the thief became friends and so here urchavar is known as Kallarbiran. there is a seperate mandapam with pillars full of beautiful sculptures.
Posted
by Shamala Krishnan
- Thenkasi:
This place is also known as Dakshina kasi. This place is known as Padma Peetam, which is one of the Pancha Peeta Sthalam.
It is about 55 kms from Thirunelveli Town. The temple was constructed by King Parakrama Pandyan.
Main deity is Swayambu Lingam known as Kasi Viswanadhar and his consort Ulagammi Amman.
The main Raja Gopuram is of seven storeys and the main deity Siva lingam is visible from the entrance. The distance between the main gopuram and the main sanctum is too long.
Chenbaga maram (tree) is sthala vruksham of the temple. Teertham is Ananda and Kasi teertham. Other deities in the temple are, Meenakshi, Chokkanadhar, Sahasra Lingam, Biravar, suryan, Nalwar, juradevar, 63 Nayanmars, Vinayakar and Arumugar.
Purana says once when King Parakrama Pandiyan visited Kasi and worshipping the Lord over there he thought he should construct a temple for Lord Siva at his place.
Lord appeared in King’s dream and asked him to follow the ants which go in a line and to construct a temple at the place where the line ends. King when he got up he saw line of ants and he followed to find the place. The line ended at snake hill under Chenbaga maram. When he cleaned the place he saw a Swayambu Lingam.
He constructed a temple at this place and installed the Siva lingam, and the place is considered as Dakshina Kasi.We see beautiful pillar sculptures in the temple.
- Kizha Pavoor:
Main deity is Venkatachalapathy and Narashimar.
The place is about 2kms from Pavoor chat tram of Alangkulam taluk of Thirunelveli district. It is about 16 kms distance from Thirunelveli town.
The temple is under renovation and Narashimar is kept in Balalayam. Here Narashimar is seen with 16 hands and Hiryanakasipu to his thigh as samhara moorthy.
There is a big pushkarani attached to temple which is known as Narashima teertham. The coolness of the teertham cools down his ugraha swaroopam and he appears in santha swaroopam. Padmavathy thayar, Prasanna Venkatachalapathy and Alarmelmangai sculptures are kept covered, to clean them.
There are stone inscription of King Chaturvarman Sri Vallabha Pandyan of 1101-1124 who repaired the compound wall of the temple.
As per purana Narashimar killed Hirynakasapu at Ahobalam in Andhara Pradesh.
Kasyapa muni, Naradha and other rishis meditated here to have the darshan of Lord Narshimar in the same form again at this place. Narashimar was happy with their penance and appeared before them with Sridevi and Bhoodevi as ugra moorthy in this place Kizha Pavoor.
Posted
by Shamala Krishnan
- Ilanji Murugan temple:
The place is about 3 kms from Thenkasi.
Main deity is Thiru Ilanji Kumarar. We see a Siva lingam in the temple known as Eruvaluga Nayakar and his consort Eruvaluga Isaykeneyal. Teertham is Chakra teertham.
Sthala vruksham Magizha Maram (tree). Elanji means Magizham and hence the place is known as Elanji. Arunagirinadhar sang Thirupugazh on Lord Murugan of this place.
To the main Gopuram, we see Lord Murugan sculpture with 10 heads. Once Murugan punished Brahma for not explaining the meaning of "OM", and he punished him by putting in a room and started doing the work of Brahma.
They say the meaning of ten heads is four of Brahma and six of shanmugar put together.
- Kuttralam:
This is one of 275 Devara sthalam.
The place is about 6 kms from Thenkasi, and 58 kms from Thirunelveli Town.
There are five water falls here. After having a shower at these falls we have a temple to visit here which is one of the Siva Devara Sthalams.
This place is known as Chakkra peetam which is one of Pancha Peeta Kshetram.
Main deity is swayambu Lingam known as Thirukundra Nadhar, Kutrala nadhar, and his consort Kuralvaaymozhi Ammai. To left side Parasakthi in different sanctum and to right side we see Ranganadha Perumal.
This is yoga sakthy peetam. In this place Nataraja sabha is known as Chittra sabha, one of 5 popular sabhy.
Other deities seen in the temple are vallabha Ganapathy, Murugan, Dakshina Moorthy, Saptha Kanniyar, Panchaboodha Lingam, Agastiyar, Ananda koothar and 63 Nayanmars.
Four Vedas together formed as Kurumpala tree and worshipped Lord Siva of this place.
Sambandhar, Navakkuarasar and Manikkavachakar sang hymns on Lord Siva of this place.
Purana says at the time of the marriage of Lord Siva with Parvathy, the earth got tilted to one side due to the weight of everyone who gathered to watch the function.
Siva asked Agyastiyar to travel down to south (Podigai malai) to balance the earth by virtue of his Tapas. Siva gave word to Agasthiyar that he can watch the function in the temple over there. Agastiyar reached Kutralam and after having bath at falls he reached the temple. He was denied the permission to enter inside the temple. The temple was Vishnu temple.
Agastiyar was worried and he reached Illanji and prayed to Lord Murugan who asked him to enter in to the temple as a Vaishnava Brahmin. Once he enters inside he can have the darshan of marriage precedings of Lord Siva.
Agastiyar did as he was told by Murugan and he was able to enter inside the temple easily.
To his surprise he saw Vishnu instead of Siva. He was worried and he touched the Vishnu idol on its head, closed his eyes and started praying. The big idol of Vishnu started decresing and turned into Siva Lingam and he was able to look into the marriage procedings of Lord Siva.
There is a mark of Agastiya muni’s fingers on the Siva Lingam in this place.
Posted
by Shamala Krishnan
- Karivalam vandha Nallore:
This place is about 11 kms distance from Sankaran Koil.
Main deity of the temple is Swayambu lingam known as Palvanna nadhar and his Consort Oppanay Ammai.
Kalamaram is the sthala vruksham of this place. Teertham of the temple is known as Sukra teertham.
An elephant (kari) worshipped Lord Siva of this place and hence the name Karivalam vandhanallore. Vilva maram of this place has 5 leaves together instead of 3 which is normal.
Purana says Indra took birth as Kari mannan (King) due to the curse of Thakkan. One day when he went for hunting he saw a Siva lingam under the Kala maram. He put a fence for the Siva Lingam and returned back.
Next day when he went there he saw the fence was disturbed and removed. King thought may be some animal has done it and again he put a fence for the Siva lingam. Next day when he went there, he saw once again fence was disturbed.
That day he decided to stay back to see who is doing that work. In the mid night he saw an elephant removing the fence; king controlled his anger and watched what was going to happen next. He saw the elephant going around the Siva Lingam. He was surprised to see this.
Again he made a fence which was disturbed again. One day finally he lost his temper and aimed at elephant at this time Lord Siva along with Parvathy, appeared and blessed both the elephant and the King.
Sukra worshipped Lord Siva and for him he appeared in milky white and hence the name Palvanna Nadhar and the teertham is known as Sukra teertham.
- Sankaran Koil:
This place is about 51 kms from Thirunelveli. The temple is big one with 3 prakarams. We have three different main sanctums for Sankara lingam, Sankara Narayanar, and Gomathy Amman.
The Sankara Narayanar temple is in-between Sankara Lingam sanctum and Gomathy Amman Santum. Hence the place is known as Sankaran Koil.
Punga tree is temples sthalam vruksham and there are 5 teertham here. They are Agni, Agasthya, Surya, Gowri and vairava teertham.
Purana says the Nagar, Sankan and Padhuman who are devotees of Lord Siva and Narayanar had discussion about which Lord is superior. Guru Bhagawan asked them to penance here to know the result of their discussion.
Parvathy wanted Lord Siva to show the mankind that they are one and the same. Lord Siva asked Parvathy to do penance under punga tree so that he can show his form of Sankara Narayanar.
Parvathy penenced here under the punga tree and Siva showed his form of Sankara- Narayanar and stayed back to bless mankind. Parvathy requested Siva to be back in normal form, so he appeared as swayambu lingam from the Puttru (ant hill) which is known as Vanmeegam and he was known as Vanmeega Nadhar.
We see a big puttru in the temple. The belief is mud of the putru cures any type of ailment; it is used as medicine externally and internal also. The mud is the main prasadam of this temple.
As we go around the sanctums, the other deities we see in the temple are Vinayakar, Subramanayar, Kasi Viswanadhar, Parasakthi, Arumugar, Durgai, Bairavar, Navagraha and 63 Nayanmars as we go around the sanctums
[Nayanmar][SwayambuLingam][purana][sthalavruksham]
Posted
by Shamala Krishnan
- Srivilliputthur: One of 108 Divya Desam temples.
The place is about 4kms from Virudhunagar, and 75 kms from Madurai.
Main deity is Rangamannar and Thayar Andal.
Importance of the temple is it is the birth place of two Azwars,
One is Periyazwar and the other Andal.
The temple is of two portions Nachiar Temple and Vadapathrasai temple.
There is a garden inbetween the two temples, which was cultivated by Periyazwar.
He found Andal as a child in this garden. The garden is taken of even today.This was the garden from where daily Andal use to pluck and make garland for Rangamannar.
Periyazwar’s house is the place where Andal Nacchiyar temple is found now.
Perumal temple is of two floors.We find Narashima Perumal sanctum. Here we see Dasavathara moorthy and Azwars.We climb few steps to reach the second floor and enter in artha mandapam, were we see Utsava Moorthy, Chakkratzwar and Kannan.
Inside the main sanctum Perumal is seen in sleeping posture on Adiseshan, with Sridevi and Bhoodevi under Vada vruksham. To the side walls inside the sanctum we see sudai chirpam (sculptures) of Garuda, Surya, Thumburu, Naradha, Sanath Kumarar, Brahma, Sankarar, Gandharvas, Chandra, Madhukaitapar, Brugu and Markendeyar. All these are painted with colours. Andal and garuda are seen to either side.
- Vaidhyanadha swamy Temple: Madavar Valagam
The temple is in Srivilliputthur town and it is about 75 kms from Madurai.
Main Deity of the temple is Swayambu Lingam known as Vaidhyanadhar, and his consort Manonmani Ammai.
Siva Gangai and Yama teertham are the pushkarani of the temple. Vanni maram is the sthala vruksham of the temple.
The other deity seen in the temple premises are Kanni Vinayakar, 63Nayanmars, Bairavar, Durgai Amman and Ramanadhar sanctum.
Surya worshipped, Lord Siva of this place and was blessed. Mandapam which is in front of the temple was constructed by Thirumalai Nayakar.
As per purana Chandran worshipped Lord Siva to get rid of his curse by Dakshan. He was blessed by Lord Siva, who gave a place for Chandran on his sikai. Lord Siva is known as Chandrashekarar.
Posted
by Shamala Krishnan
- Thiruvannamalai:
Venkatachalapathy perumal Temple.
The temple is on a small hillock. The place is about 4kms distance from Srivilliputthur.
We may have to climb about 200 steps to reach the sanctum on top. The temple is near Srivilliputthur town. Half the way we get the darshan of chakkratazwar in a small mandapam.
There is a Venugopala swamy temple here. Archakar says the deity Venugopala swamy is even older than the main Balaji on the top hill. The temple is renovated in recent years, looks neat and well maintained.
As we go around the main sanctum of Venugopala swamy, we see Dasavtharam sculptures to one side, Astha Lakshmi and Anjaneyar sculptures to the other side of the sanctum.
There is a separate sanctum for Anjaneyar and padam is installed on a lotus.
We start climbing steps once again and we happen to see a way to Thayar sannidhi.
Something unique in this temple is we see Swayambu Thayar known asPadmavathy inside the trunk of the tree as a shelter for her. They have constructed a sanctum for her. We have to climb some more steps to reach the main sanctum of Venkatesa perumal, in a big hall.
The deity is huge, and feels as though we are in front of Balaji in Tirupathy. As we go around to the corner few steps which lead to top of the mountain where we find a small sanctum with padam inside.
The archakar of the temple said, as per Purana perumal came to ask and seek Andal as his bride. When he reached this place, he came to know that marriage between Andal and Rangamannar had taken place.
He decided to stay back here. He decided his relationship with Andal to be as a brother. (Annan). Hence the place is known as Thiru Annamalai perumal temple.
Posted
by Shamala Krishnan
Posts
