Travellogue

[Guest guest]

Respected members,

Pranams.

WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS YEAR 2009.

 

I was in kerala for a month and came back on 4th of Jan. Then my daughter fell ill and hence I couldnt mail earlier. This time, when I went to Kerala, I was really lucky to have darshan in many temples. It all started with a Ganapathy temple near my in-laws house. The family had a villakku that day and luckily we reached there in the morning, so that we could attend the villakku in the evening. Then we had darshan in Krishna temple, Mookambika temple and a swayamboo Siva temple nearby.

Then I went to Kottakkal, and had darshan in many temples there. It also started with Indianoor Ganapathy temple - a very famous temple in that area. The temple has Mahavishnu facing the east with vattasrikovil and considered to be the oldest, Lord Siva facing the east. Behind Sivalinga is a wooden idol of Siva and Parvathy, Parvathy holding Baby Subramanian after a bath. The idol is about 6 Ft. The holy water flowing from the "Abhishekha" of the Siva idol is being worshipped as Ovungal thiruthali here. On the side, there is a lamp (which is to be seen through a small hole) where Subramanian was given bath. Another important fact about this temple, is that Nandi is outside the main temple, and the main entrance to this temple is closed. Legend says that Lord Siva got angry with nandi and asked him to sit outside and closed the door. The door is open only on Prathistha dinam and otherwise the entrance is through Vishnu or Ganesha temple. The

Ganesha temple is towards the west of Siva temple and facing the south. Between this temple and the Siva temple, there was a little shake which was fixed by pushing an "uli" by none other than Perunthachan, which was seen there till a few years back. The temples are more than 1500 years old and were reconstructed between 917 and 947 AD. It is heard that during the reconstruction, all the prominent members related to temple had assembled and did abishekham for the deity, but Naranathu branthan who was also supposed to come didnt reach there on time, and hence an abisheka kuttam was kept separate for him. When he reached, he did the abhisekham not on the deity, but on the picture in the wall and hence, this is called as chitrathil Ganapathy and a lamp is kept there behind the idol. However, the mural is not very clear these days. It is said that these deities prefer calm and quiet atmosphere and hence festivals or such celebrations are not conducted in

this temple. Outside the Ganesha temple is a raised area, where deities of Vettakorumakan, Lord Ayyappa and Naga are insalled. Otta and appam are the important offerings in this temple.

Our next visit was to Venkitatevar temple. He is considered to be the Paradevatha of the whole Kottakkal population and who protects from all calamities and grants all wishes. He is considered as Ardhanareeswara. It is not known as to who built the temple and when, but is believed that God started living here as desired by a saint, an ardent devotee of Lord Siva. On the temple walls are many beautiful mural paintings. We also had darshan in Vettakorumakan kavu and Thiruvilayanadu (Bhagavathy) kavu nearby. We couldnt go to Pandamangalam Krishna temple nearby as it was very late. This place, as the name suggests, was supposed to have been visited by Pandavas during their exile. Towards teh close of 18th century one of the members of Zamorin's familt happened to hear the sound blown from a counch and large number of cows were seen going to a particular part of forest area. Deva prasna was conducted which disclosed that there was an idol of

meditating Lord Krishna after destruction of Kamsa.

The temple I always visit and where I used to go everyday is Lord Viswambhara temple, very near to Arya Vaidya Sala in Kottakkal. This temple was constructed in 1932 by Vaidyaratnam P.S.Varier, the founder of Arya Vaidya Sala. As early as in 1932, the temple was open to people of all caste and creed and without any restriction. Hence, no bimba sudhi was done, there is no kotimaram, no balli kallu, etc as is usually seen in all other temples in Kerala. The idol is made of marble, and worshipped as Dhanvanthari. The idol has 4 hands with Sankha, Chakra, Gada and lotus, but unlike for Mahavishnu, lotus is on the left hand and Gada on the right. All the poojas are done as in any other temple. The festival which lasts for seven days is very famous and all major aritsts from around India perform here. Pandit Bhimsingh Joshi, Pt Siva Kumar Sharma, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, late M.S. Subhalakshmi, Dr. Balamuralikrishna, Padma Subramanian, Chitra Visheswaran,

etc etc have peformed here. This year the festival starts on March 22nd and ends on 28th. There will be kathakali performances on 5 nights again attended by all leading Kathakali artists of Kerala. After the 7 days festival, there are kalla pattus for 5 days.

My next temple visit was from my uncle's house in Kumaranellur. It started with Siva, Subramania and Krishna temples just opposite to the house. Then we went to Mullayamparampu, Njajathiri (one of the 108 Devi temples) and this time I was lucky to visit Thirumittakode also. I have in one of my earlier mails mentioned about these temples. The next visit was to Cholakkavu temple near Valanchery, our kudumba temple. It is a swayamboo Siva temple with a cave nearby. The cave is filled with water and during rainly season, the pure cold water flows to the nearby pond. We had a villakku there on that day.

Temple visits from uncle's place ended with a visit to Kulangara Bhagavathy temple and Sukapuram temple in Edappal. Sukapuram temple is dedicated to Dakshinamoorthy (Siva in meditation) and it is written on the board there that people pray there to get knowledge and also to be able to use the knowledge when needed. something not very heard in other places. Sukapuram temple also has prominence that all the yagams should start only after getting permission from there.

I dont know if I bored you all with my travellogue, this is just the beginning. I was lucky to cover many more temples, about which I will write later.

Jai Sree Krishna