Thiruvadippuram

[Guest guest]

There was a nice writeup about Shrivilliputtur in the online edition

of Dinamani at

http://www.dinamani.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=DNU20070808204457 & Title=Spiritual+Page & \

lTitle=Bu%C1Lm & Topic=0 & dName=No+Title & Dist=

Bhagavathas who are comfortable in Tamil can visit this site and read.

For those who are not here it is in English:Hundreds of years ago, the

area from Shrivilliputtur to the Western Ghats was covered by dense

forest and there was a forest of Shenbaga trees here. A Rakshasa

'Shenbagasura.'performed severe penance for many years and got many

boons. Since his penance was done here, this place is called

'Shenbagavanam' even today.

Emboldened by the power of the boons, he harmed all the sadhus and

rishis.

They took refuge in ShrimanNarayana and he sent his Sudarshanazhvar to

kill Shenbagasuran.

Chakrathazhvar did as he was bid, but since Shenbagasuran had done a

lot of penance, Chakrathazhvar was afflicted by brhamahathi.

So, he was rendered powerless - he protested to his Lord and Shri

MahaVishnu called upon Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswathi to come to this

area and help remove Sudarshanazhvar's brahmahathi.

The Three holy rivers descended to the Earth and removed

Chakrathazhvar's brahmahathi and filled the tank in Shrivilliputtur.

This tank is still known as 'Mukkulam' since the three holy rivers

filled it.

Mahavishnu resided to the east of this tank, thereby fulfilling the

wish of the holy rivers as Vatapatrashayee and took the same form as

in Shreevaikuntam.

But, no one new of His presence, since the whole area was covered with

dense forest.

Then one day, two hunters Villi and Kantan came hunting.

And .....

Everyone knows the story from here -

Kantan was killed by a tiger and Villi was looking for him. He was

very tired and slept under a tree and the Lord appeared in his dreams

and showed him where he was and bade him to build a temple for him.

He also showed Villi the treasure that was buried under the tree under

which he was sleeping.

(There are two versions here- one says that Kantan came back and

helped Villi, and the other says that Villi was told by the Lord that

the incident happened so that Villi would come to this area looking

for Kantan)

Villi woke up and found the Lord. He built the temple and the little

town around it. This town was known as Villiputtur after Villi and

Shrivilliputtur since the Lord resided here.

Hundreds of years later, Vishnuvchittar incarnated here and Goda

appeared as his daughter.

 

And the rest is, of course, is well known by all devotees.

 

Father and daughter worshipped Vatapathrasayee and Goda loved and

married the Lord and even today they give darshan in this town as

Rangamannar and Andal to their beloved devotees.

 

Andal thiruvadigale charanam

 

Shubha