By PragyanSharma Polavarapu
(A)
At about 4 pm on 3-8-24 we started from Rameswaram to Thiruchendur (220 kms, 5 hours journey, Thuthukudi district ) to visit the famous and most holy and most beautiful sri Murugan temple. We travelled near to the southern sea boundary. For us who live in land-locked Hyderabad 1100 kilometers away it was really a thrill to travel very close to sea coast and journey amidst millions of coconut trees and endless greenery. The sea “was here there and every where”. When winds are strong the waves grow to huge size and look like foaming angry horses.It was night around 10 pm when we reached Thiruchendur. We just went to the nice hotel and took rest. The Tiruchendur temple is said to be the most popular and most visited temple in Tamilnadu .The temple is of huge proportions just like the temple at Srirangam, Jambukeswara temple,Sri Villiputhur temple,Madurai Meenakshi temple and Rameswaram temple. The pillared corridors and mandapams are as
gorgeous as in those temples.The pillars with nice sublime sculptures of gods are majestic. This indicates that Thiruchendur was one of the great temples built in those golden centuries of temple building . I should say that Thiruchendur is one of the most magnificient temples I have seen.
Here the god is Lord Murugan known as Lord Kumaraswamy in many parts of India and is the son of Lord Shiva . He is commander-
in-chief of Heaven’s armies . His other names are Lord Skanda , Lord Karthikeya , Lord Subrahmanya( Lord of the world of snakes) and Deva Senapathi( commander in chief of heaven’s armies). The legend of Lord Kartikeya is mentioned in the Vedas and there is a most famous Purana called Skanda Purana .Lord Kumaraswamy or Lord Murugan is famous as slayer of the most evil demon Taraka. Lord Murugan is revered as the national god of Tamil people. His mother, Goddess Parvathi, gave him a most powerful magical spear called “the Vel”. The god is also called Lor
d Velayudhan.
Lord Murugan is also treated as a great Shaiva philosopher in contrast to his childhood image as a playful child. Once Lord Murugan (Lord Kumaraswamy) was outwitted by his scholarly elder brother Lord Vinayaka in completing a race to run round the three worlds. Lord Vinayaka being already an erudite scholar knew that walking around parents with a feeling of great reverence is equal to visiting all the three worlds. He followed the rule and reverentially walked round his divine parents.Lord Murugan saw with his own eyes his brother the slow Lord Vinayaka winning the race. He realized that he had to learn a lot of divine knowledge to compete with his brother. He went to Himalayas and meditated and in course of time became the greatest Shaiva philosopher.
(B)
Thiruchendur is on the seashore of south India 213 kms west of the great Rameswaram temple . It is most beautiful with its glorious presence very near to the endless blue sea. Lord Murugan is also revered as Bala Murugan i.e. Child Murugan just like Child Krishna(Bala Krishna) . We can not find anywhere a seashore temple more beautiful than the temple at Thiruchendur.It is said to be one of the most visited temples of India. It is less than a hundred meters away from the sea waves . People say they feel great serenity and rare spiritual joy while praying to Lord Murugan sitting in the sand near to the water in the dawn hours.
Though Shiva worship was prominent in deep South since 2000 years ,the Vaishnava gods are equally loved.An examples of this mutual regard between Vishnu and Shiva traditions is the famous sculpture in Madurai Meenakshi temple. Lord Vishnu treated as elder brother of goddess Parvathi(sri Meenakshi Aamma) gives her hand in marriage to a most beautiful Lord Sundareswara(Lord Shiva) .At Rameswaram where the grand and most majestic complex for Lord Shiva exists,Lord Rama is also worshipped and every inch of land in the island is linked to the story of Lord Rama. In every temple of south India such mutual regard between Shaivism and Vaishnavism can be seen.
There is the famous legend of Lord Murugan killing the most evil demon Taraka and restoring the kingdom of Heaven to Lord Indra.The Sanskrit drama of the great poet Kalidasa also revolves around this legend. There is a story that a very wicked demon king Sura Padma constructed a magical palace in the middle of the sea and ruled from there and was invisible to people because of his magical power. His sons were equally evil.King Sura Padma was the elder brother of Tarakasura who wanted to conquer the heaven of gods and kidnap Indra’s queen Shachi. Lord Indra king of heaven requested Lord Murugan son of Lord Shiva to help. Lord Murugan the great warrior was made the commander of heaven’s armies.
Lord Murugan was very patient and tried to convince the brothers SuraPadma and Taraka to stop their evil ways. But they did not heed his advice and became even more violent putting the lives of people of the world in extreme danger. So Lord Murugan after a fierce battle killed Taraka and returned back control of Swarga (heaven) to Indra. The sons of the king SuraPadma who were also most evil were killed. Then Lord Murugan pursued the king SuraPadma to the sea and fought a most fierce war for several days . SuraPadma took many magical forms and finally disappeared and changed to a huge mango tree . Lord Murugan using the mighty Vel cut the tree vertically into two. The evil king while dying greatly repented for his sins.Lord Murugan changed the two halves of the tree into two different birds. The two birds were peacock and the domestic cock . Lord Murugan took the peacock as his vehicle. He took the cock as his war symbol and put it on his war banner .After Lord Murugan eliminated the evil Taraka ,Lord Indra gave his daughter in marriage to Lord Murugan. A tribal king also gave his daughter Princess Valli in marriage to Lord Muruga.
(C)
It is well known that a sulime spiritual atmosphere prevails in Thiruchendur throughout the year. Two great festivals are celebrated at Thiruchendur . One is about Lord Murugan’s victory over Taraka and the other about his marriage to Princess Valli . The famous Skanda Purana contains a story. In the moddle decades of 17th century the Dutch colonial soldiers looted the temple and stole a big golden idol of god and were carrying in the ship to their country . Suddenly a very severe storm broke out . The soldiers were frightened treating it has god’s anger.Out of great fear they threw the statue into the sea. Surprisingly the storm too suddenly abated and disappeared and the seas became calm.Later a great devotee of Shiva retrieved the statue from the sea and got it installed in the temple.
During centuries of time the salt laden moist air of the sea caused damage to the temple because it was earlier built using sand-stone type rock .It is said that a sage with his disciples stayed there and and arranged for extensive reconstruction. The reconstruction work is said to have taken nearly 70 years. Two or three generations of workers and sculptors must have toiled to complete the work . Many great religious minded and god-fearing rulers must have spent great amounts of money. The new structures were built with granite stone instead of earlier sand stone from nearby hills .
Now the temple has three concentric high prakaras protecting the temple from the effects of sea. The temple complex encloses large area which has a flooring made of granite blocks .The enclosed area is said to be 90 metersX 65 meters. The temple is only less than hundred meters from the sea. It is truly a great engineering masterpiece like the great Rameswaram temple. The temple gopuram is 157 feet high with most beautiful sculptures. The temple has also a 126 pillar mantapam where many religious rituals held. A very spiritual atmosphere exists every day throughout the year.It is said that an atmosphere of joy and enthusiasm prevails among devotees . The god is worshipped as Bala Murugan (Child Murugan like Child Krishna).
There is also a practice of “Kavadi” a holy religious practice observed by many devotees. It is observed with following a long period of prayers . Two heavy loads are carried to temple in a “Kavadi” which has two big pans attached to a long pole. The pans are kept in nets tied to the pole at the two ends. The kavadi is carried on his shoulders by the devotee. The two heavy pans generally containing pails of cow’s milk which are presented to god reverentially with a special and humble prayer. The prayer to god is for curing a dearly loved family member from long incurable diseases or as prayer for requesting god to fulfill some deep personal wishes.
(D)
OUR OWN VISIT TO THIRUCHENDUR TEMPLE
At 6am on 4-8-24 we went inside the most holy temple . The guide and his assistants guided us through crowds. They took us to the main temple and later showed us the many other temples (both of Shiva and Vishnu traditions) in the temple complex. Here Lord Murugan (Lord Kumaraswamy) is worshipped in child form as “Bala Murugan”. The time period in which our travel was taking place was a very auspicious period .As such at Tiruchendur we saw the streets near the temple filled for a kilometer with huge crowds of thousands of devotees. During all this long temple trip we did not see such huge crowds of devotees at any other temple . There were thousands of people and entire roads were overflowing with people.It was a most wonderful sight.
In all the areas in Thiruchendur we saw many peacocks . The peacock is the vehicle of Lord Murugan . We found many peacocks on the low branches or on low roofs of
houses and to devotees it was a most pleasant sight . The Murugun temple here is very ancient and of gigantic proportions just like temples at Srirangam, Madurai,Sri Villiputhoor and Rameswaram. It has also long corridors built with rows 20 or 25 feet high pillars with beautiful sculptures.The temple tower here is very high and is full of most beautiful sculptures of gods.
We had darshan of the great god Lord Muruga in the cave-like inner temple and then spent about two hours visiting other temples in the complex moving among the big crowd .The high temple tower was a big attractive sight near the sea and was a big land mark.We felt blessed visiting this great temple.
Comments
Post a Comment