Azagiyamanavalan With Woraiyur Kamavalli Thanyar Panguni Adhi Brhmothsavam 6th day!

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Dear Sriranga Sri and Respected Memebers!

Adeyen Dashan!

 

As we even think about Srirangam, it not only brings us the thoughtabout Lord Ranganatha but it also brings the bliss and joy in ourheart. Srirangam is a place of great history, each and every festivalthat is celebrated at this holy place is celebrated for the people so

as to bring the the people together.-- UTHSAVAM DAY 6 Woraiyur purappadu, Sri Kamalavalli Nachiyar Sri Azhagiya MaNavaLan serthi (26th March)Early this day, at 4:00 AM, NamperumaL starts His procession towards Woraiyur on the southern banks the Kaveri river.  Lord arrives at Woraiyur and is wedded to Sri Kamalavalli NachiyAr, about whom we will see in today’s article.  Lord Namperumal  with Sri Kamalavalli Nachiyar bless the bhakthas together on this auspicious day that happens only once every year on the 6th day of Adhi BrahmOthsavam.  Now let us see the story behind Lord Ranganatha’s trip to Woraiyur to get married to Kamalavalli Thayar.

Woraiyur was the capital of the ancient great Chozha  Kingdom.  The story goes that the Chozha king Nanda Chozhan was childless but did a lot of kainkaryam (service) to Lord Ranganatha  of Srirangam.  Pleased with his prayers, Lord Ranganatha  asked goddess Lakshmi to be born as the king‟s daughter at Woraiyur. Being born from a lotus, the Goddess at Woraiyur is called Kamalavalli. As years went by, Kamalavalli grew up into a beautiful young girl. One day, while she was playing with her friends, her eyes fell on a handsome lad, Lord Ranganatha  of Srirangam, and fell in love with Him instantly. King Nanda Chozhan was in a fix as his daughter had fallen in love with the Lord, who had blessed the king with the child. He prayed to Lord to accept His daughter as the Lord’s bride.  Lord Namperumal  accepted the king's prayers and agreed to take Her as His bride. Delighted at this, Nanda Chozhan built the temple at Woraiyur to celebrate it, which is now the Woraiyur Kamalavalli Nachiyar temple.

Lord NamPerumal in all his splendour, leaves Srirangam at 4 am across river Cauvery in a golden pallakku (palanquin) to meet his beloved goddess Kamalavalli for the kalyana uthsavam (marriage festivities).  On this auspicious day in the Tamil month of Panguni, the entire marriage formalities between Lord Ranganatha  and Goddess Kamalavalli will be enacted at the Woraiyur temple. Here, one can see Kamalavalli in a grand sitting posture all set to get married. A unique feature of this temple is that this is the only Dhivya Dhesam (out of the 108) where the Goddess is facing the Northern direction or in the direction of the Srirangam Ranganatha  temple.  After the marriage festivities are enacted, Lord Ranganatha awill take the trip back to Srirangam across Kaveri that same night at 1.30 am. The story goes that Goddess Ranganayaki of Srirangam came to know about the Lord‟s trip to Woraiyur through KAveri Thayar who had seen the Lord go across her river bed. This angered Goddess Ranganayaki Thayar and we will read about what happens in our future articles.

We would like to point out a couple of very important notes on Woraiyur.  This is the avatharasthalam (birth place) of Thiruppan Azhwar, who sung the ten beautiful pAsurams (Tamil verses) called amalanAdhipiran about Lord Sri Ranganathaswamy.

There are also two pasurams sung on Woraiyur’s (also known as ThirukkOzhiyur) Azhagiya Manavala Perumal, the presiding deity.In his Perumal  thirumozhi, Kulasekara Azhwar sings:allimaamalar mangai naathan aranganmey adiyaarkaL thamm

yellaiyil adimaith thiRaththinil yenRum mEvu manaththanaamkollikaavalan koodalnaayakan kOzhikkOn kulasEkaransollin inthamizh maalai vallavar thoNdar thoNdarkaL aavareKulasekara sings these verses on the truly and divinely blessed bhagavathas, who have unalloyed devotion to Lord Sri Ranganathan - the master and chief of Sri Mahalakshmi seated on the red petal lotus flower. Kulasekara has his mind always on these greatest bhagavathas; he is the king of kolli nagaram; the nayaka of Madurai (koodal dhesam); the chief of Woraiyur (Thirukkozhi). He has sung these verses in sweet and chaste tamil and those who are blessed to recite and read these verses will become the servants of the servants (adiyarkku adiyar) of the Lord.

In his Periya thirumozhi, Thirumangai Azhwar sings:kOzhiyum koodalum koyil kondakovala rEyoppar kundramannnna,paazhiyum tholum or Naanngu daiyarpandivar thammaiyum kandariyom,vaazhiya rovivar vanna mennil

maagadal pondrular kaiyilveyya,aazhiyondren renndhiy Or changgu patriachcho  oruvar azhagiyavaa!He has Thiruvuraiyoor (ThirukkOzhiyUr) and Thirukkoodal as His place of residence. He is the Lord and the King. He stands like the Chakravartthi. He has four strong shoulders like huge mountains. We have never seen Him before. Let Him live long for hundreds of years. Speaking of His gorgeous beauty, He stands like the huge, vast, deep blue ocean. He stands with the chakra on one hand and sangu on the other. Wow, what an unparalleled beauty of His!

Thus, on this sixth day, Lord Namperumal gets married to Sri Kamalavalli Nachiyar of ThirukkOzhiyur (Woraiyur), blesses the bhakthas together (serthi) for the entire day before the Lord returns the same night to Srirangam.  He directly goes to Veli Andal  sannadhi where He exchanges garland with Sri Andal( Godha Devi)

Afterwards He returns very innocently back to kannadi arai for the rest of the night.

 

 

 

 

 

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