My pilgrimage around Kumbakonam

My first post in the new year ! And happens to be an account of my pilgrimage ! :)

Here goes :

27, March

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We reached Chidambaram by 4AM and rested for a while before starting to temples at 8.30 AM. We visited the thillai kali temple first , followed by Nataraja temple.

I wanted to show the ratnasabapathi abhishekam to my wife and hence reached the temple quite early. We stood in front of Natarajar for quite long and luckily there was no impact of the govt take over of the temple on the ease of darshan. We offered rose garland to the god and goddess.

We finished all the sannadhi's and came back near Nataraja's shrine and to my utter joy, the rathnasabapathi was uncased and placed on the peetam for abhishekam at the exact moment of our arrival ! Quite surprising ! And we witnessed a wonderful abhishekam and stood quite close to the abhishekam water canal and hence could collect the theertham at will.

As a climax of this ritual, karpuram is offered to god both at the front and back side . When the karpuram is placed at the backside, the nataraja-made out of rathnam, looks as if the statue was made of fire flame ! And though rathnam is supposed to be a tough crystal, the carving looks so intricate ! Superb stuff !

After this , I was a little sad that I coudldn't show the spatika lingam abhishekam to my wife and we we were about to start, the spatika lingam was uncased and placed outside for abhishekam ! Wow !! It was for the next kaalam puja ! Again we witnessed it from close quarters and got anna prasadam[few morsels of rice] after anna abhishekam.

Wow ! What a deeply satisfying visit !

We started out to Sirkazhi temple at 3.30PM,followed by Vaitheeswaran temple, Senthankudi durgai[near Mayuram] and Vallalar temple[ near Mayuram,famous Medha dhakshinamurthy temple].

We stayed at Mayuram for the night.

28 March

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It was an eventful day, we started out with Vaanamutti perumal temple at 7AM, where the statue of god is made of athi maram-type of tree and it was about 14ft tall and very beautiful !! Next came Kathiramangalam{Vanadurgai-very powerful shrine], Kanjanur[Sukran sthalam],Thirumanancheri[Supposed to visit this temple for getting blessed with marriage soon] , Thirumangalakudi[Have to visit this before suryanar temple - Place where all navagrahas god freed of their curse - Place where mangalya dosham is offset], Suryanar temple[Temple for sun god and there's a shrine for all navagrahas seperately], and reached Govindapuram[Jiva samadhi of 59th acharya of Kamakoti peetam. Extremely powerful ,and even now a sincere devotee can hear raama naam chanting emerging from the samadhi, during the nights] by 1.15 PM and broke for lunch.

After lunch in the mutt, we sat beside the adjoining kaveri river and were silently chanting Raama naam.

Started out to Swamimalai at 3.30 and had a fabulous darshan, as we bought special ticket, we sat quite close to the deity and what power !! This was followed by Thiruvalanchuzhi[ powerful ganapathi, made out of sea froth by Indra, white in color and just about 1 1/2ft tall. We touched Thiruvidai marudhur, Thirubhuvanam and Dharasuram[Architectural beauty] but couldn't make it on time shortage, but all of these are a must see !

We reached Thirukarugavur[Garba rakshambika, Mullaivana nathar] at about 5.40 PM and what a powerful temple this is ! I never felt like coming away from this temple ! Such is the sannidhyam !! After this we reached PAttiswaram[Again very powerful Durgai amman, but mainly Shiva temple, and Thirugyana sambandar is supposed to have received a palquin of pearls from god, since he was roaming around temples as a kid, bare footed ! Quite a big temple !

And on strong recommendation from our relatives, I visited ThiruShakthi mutram[About 2 streets away from Pattiswaram temple]. This temple has the goddess hugging the Shiva lingam and hence its believed that couples will stay intimate on visiting this temple. This was a highly memorable day since it was my birthday[star] and goes into history as my best b'day celebration ever. We crashed in beds at 10.30PM.

29 March

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Today was marked for a visit to our native place-Thirupandurai,about 1 mile from Nachiar koil.

So we started out with Uppiliappan temple in the morning at 7AM , finished Nachiar koil, and reached our village at about 10 AM. We finished puja at twin pillayar temple , followed by the puja at Mangalambika samedha Pranaveshwarar ! Felt deeply satisfied by visiting these temples, which were frequented by my great ancestors !

We reached Thiruveezhi mazhalai[Near Eravancheri at 11.30 AM] Here too, the god and goddess are in marital pose and Shiva married Kathyayani [Parvati]. This temple also has famous incidents related to Sambandar and appar, as Sambandar used to sing a song daily in front of god and get a gold coin, which he uses to alleviate the drought prevalent that time.

Very big temple, this. This is the place where Vishnu was presented the chakram by Shiva since Vishnu offered his eye at the feet of Shiva.

We broke for lunch in Peralam in our relative's house.

Well, the couple in the house were octogenarians and I swear you wont guess their age until they divulge. The lady is more active than a rabbit and has a phenominal memory power and can quote 50yr old incidents in a jiffy ! I always like to know about lives and times of my ancestors and she more than satisfied this quest of mine.

Post lunch, we set out to Koothanur[Saraswati temple, one of the few in India, very powerful], followed by Thirumeyachur[Lalithambika, supposed to be the birthplace of Lalitha sahasranamam, very beautiful and powerful goddess , thronged by devotees and offered Lalitha sahasranamam parayanam].

This was followed by Thirupambaram[ Rahu kethu parihara kshetram].

Finally we reached pozhakudi, where my wife's granny lives and its a very small village. We spent about 40mins with her and then reached Mayuram at 10.20PM. Was a marathon day !!

30 March

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This day was earmarked for places in Nagai dt. We started out with Darshan of Avayambika temple in Mayuram, followed by Thirunallar[Saniswaran temple], followed by Nagore durgah and Nagai Shiva temple[Neelayathakshi ambal samedha Kayarohaneshwarar- This is one of the very few shakthi peetam in the state, powerful and huge temple, has 5 nandhi's has Jiva samadhi of a sidhar within the temple. Deep sannidhyam is prevalant. We started out from nagai at 12.10PM and wanted to cover Sikkal[Singaravelan] temple also , but was quite late since temples usually close by 12PM.But merely by stroke of luck, the driver mentioned that its Krithigai and temple maybe open. So we dashed real quik to find that krithigai abhishekam had just started and the god has been brought down to a big hall for abhishekam. And an amazing abhishekam unfolded in front of us ! Pure grace this was ! We were blessed with Abhisheka thirtham at every stage and this would go down as one of the biggest miracles witnessed by me.

We broke for lunch in the temple and then reached velankanni temple at 2.10 PM. After a satisfying darshan, we reached the great Thiruvarur temple at 4.30PM. This was the birthplace of carnatic music trio and the temple compund is just unending !

We had a great darshan, but couldn't have darshan of THyagaraja swami shrine as it was getting ready for vasanthothsavam ! Again, it was amazing to visit such special temples on my date of birth :)

And a wonderful pilgrimage, which happened purely on account of divine grace[My granny, who's just recovered from the death bed, was able to make it to many of these temples, and is nothing short of a miracle] and definitely not human effort, comes to an end !

But our minds still linger on to the experience though !