My India Trip

[Guest guest]

Hello,

I made a short but sweet and memorable trip to India. Some of the

stuff that i did out there might be of interest to this group and

hence this posting.

 

i toured around a lil bit and visited the following 15 temples of

interest ( how many count as dhivya dhesams??)This is a list of

their common names..

 

1. SriraNGgam

2. guNaseelam

3. uththamarkOil

4. thiruveLLaRai

5. uRaiyoor

6. vaduvoor

7. oppiliyappaNnkOil

8. maNnNnaargudi

9. sEraNGguLam

10. nNaachiyaarkOil (thirunNaRaiyoor)

11. thiruchchERai

12. saarNGgapaaNi

13. raamaswaami

14. chakrapaaNi

15. thiruvallikkENi.

 

I had to complete this in 3 days. had a very good dharsanam in all

the kOvils.

Mr. SadagOpan, we stayed in Mr. uppili's house just opposite the

uppiliappan temple and had food at his place. He conveyed his

enquiries to u. He took us around the temple and was kind enough to

give a detailed explanation about the sthala puraaNam and other

interesting things.

 

Took photographs of some of the gOpurams. will send them to Mr.

P. Dileepan. Got the collection from my uncle containing lotso

details, pphotographs , paasurams, etc about the 108 dhivya dhesams.

will go thro it once and pass it on to Dileepan. Its quite

interesting.

 

collected some information about the needy temples in and around

Madras. Thirukkadalmallai ( mahaabalipuram )is in a sorry state , i

was told. It is an aazhwaar avathaara sthalam and it needs

baalaalayam to be completed. Thiruneermalai also needs some

renovation work to be completed but is taken care i was told.

regarding these information , i got an

interesting contact.

 

There is a group of people under the name of "dhivya dhEsa

samrakshaNa sabhaa" They take care of such needy temples by

arranging funds for nithya kainkaryam, vasthram, thaLigai, the

temple infrastructure...They seem to be doing a wonderful job. They

have taken up 45 temples presently and are doing these kainkaryams.

what they are doing is exactly what we have in mind i think. The

important thing is that they are 1. an established organization, 2.

based in Madras, 3. they have a panel of learned scholars as well as

legal people. we(the prapatti group) discussed a lot about how to direct our

funds, how

to find the really needy temples, how to manage the funds, the legal

implications of doing so, our doubts of whether it reaches the right

hands... etc. I heard about Mrs. Y g Parthasarathy, Principal, Padma

Seshadri Bala bhavan engaged in such temple renovation activities

and called her and left a message. She called me the day i was

leaving and talked for abt 20 mins. I just explained about our

thoughts/plans regarding this. I got to know from her that the

Kanchi sankarachaarya ( pudhu periyavar) heard about this while

they were starting and donated Rs. 10,000 as a first donation and

showered his aaseervaathams. vElukkudi varadhaachaariyaar swamy's

son Krishnan who is also doing a lot of upanyaasams these days ( i

attended 2 of them, very good, typical of his father) is one of the

member. TT Vasu ( Music Academy ) is the president. Suresh Krishna(

TVS) is the vice president. Sri Krishna premi swami is also in the

committee. Mr. N.C. ragavachari (MGR's advocate) is also in the

panel. They have taken up the temples of navathiruppathi, temples

around seergaazhi, some temples (thirukkadalmallai) around madras.

They had some tax problems initially it seems. but they have found

some legal ways of doing it to cut down taxes (they term the

"thaLigai kainkaryam" as poor feeding and similar such legal, tax

evasive terms for the intended kainkaryams. I myself have seen the

renovation work going on in one of the temples of navathiruppathi

when i visited during July 1993. I asked Mrs. YGP to send us the

detailed brochure, what they have accomplished, what are their

plans, who comprises the committee and other related details about

their organization. I have given my address / fax. I will send the

details once i get it to those who are interested. I sincerely feel

that we can pursue this and contribute something towards this noble

cause which we had been talking for a long time. I feel more

commitment on our part because comparatively most of us are well to

do than those in India who are interested in such things, our

contribution has more "value"(Rupee Vs Dollar), we are far away from

all the dhivya dhesams and lack any opportunity for some kainkaryam

or other. Lets take active participation in this. Mr. Dileepan, Mr.

Sadagopan, Mr. Sampath, Mr. Mani , Mr. sreekrishna and others should

take this up and add strength to this feeble cry.

 

I wish to make this clear: I am not in any way realted / connected

to any of the people i have mentioned above. It is just that i heard

about them, i enquired the details, i felt there need not be any

duplication of efforts for the same cause,and i am passing on the info

to everybody in this group.

 

Hope everything works out fine.

 

rukmaNi samEdha sri paarthasaarathi swami thiruvadigaLE charaNam

Vijay Triplicane

(viji - too many vijay's!)

 

vijayt

(408)738-0364 (Home)

[Guest guest]

In addition to the list mentioned by Sri Vijay Triplicane, i would

also add one more temple to the list if some one wants to visit.

 

It is kaarpaNGkaadu temple, about an hour from maNNaargudi. It is

a beautiful remote village. Even though the temple has gone through

renovation, the village is pretty much empty. It houses just about

10 families or so who take care of the temple, with the help of

money donated by folks from maNNaargudi, sEraNGgulam and their

relatives around India. One of the books on Gita Bhashya of Sri

Ramanuja was funded partly by RK Mutt and by Sri kaarpaNGkaadu

venkatacharyaar (who was incharge of raising funds for the

temple) in late 60s.

 

kaarpaNGkaadu and sEraNGgulam are two of what is know as pancha

graamam. nammaNGkurichi is the third and I do not recall the

other two villages. I am also told that out of the five only

two survive this day.

 

 

-venkatesh