M14- SRI SUCHINDRAM TEMPLE AND OTHER GREAT TEMPLES

By PragyanSharma Polavarapu

SRI SUCHINDRAM TEMPLE , SRI VIVEKANANDA ROCK, SRI TIRUVALLUVAR TEMPLE –ALSO MUPPANDAL WIND FARM.

I remember we started early at about 1o’clock in the afternoon(4-8-24) from Thiruchendur after a little rest after food. We had important places to visit on our way to Thiruvananthapuram which is about 200 kilometers away. The direct journey would take four and half hours but we would be slowly travelling and the journey may take two or three hours more.

We travelled close by the sea.It was a most pleasant journey for us from distant Deccan Plateu lands i.e.from Hyderaad city. Now of course we actually started from Pune, Maharashtra and would be returning there for a stay at our daughter’s house. We travelled among millions of coconut trees and often in close view of the sea.

(1)MUPPANDAL WIND POWER FARM.

After journeying for about 70 kilometers we passed by the Kudamkulam Nuclear Power station(Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu) which is said to be the largest nuclear power station in India. We travelled close by the colossal cooling towers . It was collaboration project between a Russian power company and Nuclear Power Corporation of India. The two units of the nuclear power plant which were completed in 2016 costed rs 17,260 crores and together produce 2x(1000 MW) power.

Soon we neared the Muppandal wind farm. It is located near Muppandal village near Suchindram town ,Kanyakumari district.It is an area of greenery with thousands of coconut trees spread in all directions beside the long black road .There were hundreds of giant-sized modern wind mills–each a gigantic RCC structure with superstrong internal steel structure. They are not Don Quixote’s wind mills we read of in schools. They are giant modern machines to produce electric current ! The RCC base of each conical tower is as big as a big room in a house . such “wind farm” can supply power to thousands of houses. Each tower may cost a few crore rupees. There are a few hundred wind mills. So the vast project may have costed a few tens of thousands of crores of rupees.

The electricity produced by a wi
nd mill is directly supplied to homes instead of to a central power grid. There is possibility that in near future families can purchase a wind mill along with a house with solar panel roof. A family can purchase such installation for life. Engineers at international level are studying about such new systems.

Internet articles indicate that the Muppandal wind farm produces 1500 MV of electricity and is connected to Tamilnadu Electricity Board. This wind farm is said to be largest in India at present and the third largest in world. In new India several such wind farms can be set up in the windy coastal regions and windy mountainous regions.The wind farm,for us who saw it for the first time, looked unreal.

The wind farm is a symbol of New India different from the prevailing view of India as a land of bullock carts . The wind farm , the Nuclear Power Station at Kudamkulam and other such projects like the Srihari Kota Space Station of Andhra Pradesh are symols of New India .The area had millions of coconut trees . Until I saw this vast country in coastal area I did not realize that that coconut is one of our basic treasures.The salt laden sandy soils near the sea canot support other crops.

2.SUCHINDRAM TEMPLE

At about 4pm(4-8-24) we arrived at the famous temple town Suchindram (population 12,000 ). It is at a distance of about 20 kilometers from Muppandal. The most famous,majestic and beautiful “Thanumalayan” Temple here is a temple for the Trimurthis ( the great gods Brahma,Vishnu and Shiva treated as a single god and known in Tamilnadu area as god “Tanumalayan”). The name brings to our mind the famous Sanskrit phrase “Srishti –Sthithi—Laya” which correctly describes the respective duties of the above three forms of god almighty of universe.It is the mystic,majestic, formless and un-understandable god encompassing all universe.

The Thanumalayan Temple is an important Hindu temple considered as very holy by both shaivas and vaishnavas.It is stated that in the temple there are six daily pooja rituals at various times from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. There is a great 10-day festival in December/ January period attracting hundreds of thousands of devotees. The temple car is taken out in a grand procession during that festival.

Legend says that the king of gods Lord Devendra was under a terrible curse and got released from that curse only by worshipping the Trimurthy(Tanumalayan) form of god almighty at this temple.Tradition says that Lord Devendra worships the Trimurthy form of god every night in the midnight hour even now.

The Navaratri Mandapam built during the16th century was constructed in Kerala style with wooden structures .There are 1035 pillars with carvings in the area known as the dancing hall.There is a Nandi statue, made of mortar and lime, which is 13 feet high. On the pillars there are sculptures of various s scenes from Ramayana and Mahabharatha.

We spent about two hours inside the magnificent temple complex. We prayed at most of the temples in the complex but could not visit some as we had to reach Thiruvanathapuram and visit Lord Anantha Padmanabha temple next day.We prayed at the magnificient Lord Anjaneya statue in its matapam.

The seven storeyed main Gopuram is studded with most beautiful,artistic and sublime sculptures of gods . The temple looked as magnificent as Sri Jambukeswara temple, Sri Villiputhur temple and Thiruchendur temple all of which we saw earlier in this trip. It appears all these gigantic size temples with most beautiful and artistic sculptures of gods were all planned in a systematic way in a period of several decades or even a few centuries.

There are seemingly endless,long and perfectly straight corridors made of large number of stone pillars of 20-25 feet height . we wondered at the engineering skill in handling huge stone slabs and stone blocks . Hundreds of years ago there were no cranes. They probably constructed kilometers long earthen inclined planes and made use of elephant power.

The South’s temples like Srirangam, Jambukeswaram, Sri Villiputhoor, Madurai, Rameswaram,Thiruchendur have much similarity in styles .( The great majestic Tanjavur Brihadeeswara temple is of a class by itself).It is said that the Hampi Vijianagar style is superimposed on the sculptural styles of these temples.Most beautiful photos of Tanumalayan temple are available in plenty on the Internet. It is one of the most beautiful temple complexes in the south showing great perfection,sense of proportion and advanced view of temple art.

Within the main temple at suchindram there is another marvel .In “Aalankara Mantapam” area there are four musical pillars . Each pillar consists within it four lean smaller cylindrical pillars of 18 feet height and of about six inches in diameter .All the four lean pillars merge at top and bottom into the main bulky pillar. The small inner pillars,when tapped, produce musical notes of the Indian raga system! The priest demonstrated this to the wondering devotees including us. It is said that the Hampi Vijayanagar’s expert sculptors brought this art of musical pillars into several south Indian temples.

It is said that the temple was mainly renovated in the 17th century . There are very ancient inscriptions some dating back to 9th century AD. It is stated that the Nayak dynasty king Thirumalai Nayak and later the Travancore Maharajas—-(responsible for the reconstruction of Lord Anantha Padmanabha temple at Thiruvananthapuram)— were responsible for the reconstruction of Suchindram temple.

While the temple is Vaishnavite there are large populations of Shaivites in the towns and villages in the area. It was because in ancient times the area was ruled by kings who followed the Shaiva form of Hinduism . However in later times both the Saivite and Vaishnavite philosophies became equally popular .

3.THE VIVEKANANDA MEMORIAL AND SRI THIRUVALLUVAR MEMORIAL.

About 15 kilometers further we came to the sea side and its enldless sandy shore .it was about 5-30 pm ( 4-8-24).witin a few meters there was the sea with only small boulders or protection wall and cement steps separating us from water.there is a nice cement road parallel to the sea. hundreds of people were coming,many among them perhaps tourists .We reached the area of the famous Vivekananda rock memorial and the magnificent monolithic statue of the great Tamil saint Sri Thiruvalluvar both located in the sea just half kilometer away from our side(the very edge of the land of our great Indian republic. The places are situated on two small hillocks in the sea near to each other.

The area was crowded with evening visitors.many two wheelers were on te road. We parked our veicle near some shops and walked.we got some group photos taken by it some individual photographers. It was a long walking trip in sand among the hundreds of people in the temporary bazaars on the sand. Not too faraway were visible many multistorey buildins and other houses among the large number of coconut trees and other trees.

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Swami Vivekananda is a magnet of Modern India who thrilled Indian youth with his successful tour of America(USA) at the turn of 19th century bringing for the first time to western audiences on a large scale the sublime ancient Hindu philosophy of the Vedas.His speeches and writings also electrified Indian youth and made them feel proud of ancient culture and philosophy of India.His views appear relevant even in present times. He pointed out the defects in the Indian social system and made the youth to think about removing those defects and modernizing India and inculcating a balanced modern outlook and a cultured moral outlook.

It is said swami Vivekananda meditated for many days sitting alone on the rock where the memorial is now constructed. It is said that Sethupathi kings of Tamilnadu played an important part in the meteoric rise of Swamy Vivekananda. For the youth of India Swami Vivekananda even today remains a big magnet.

Near Vivekananda memorial in the sea waters (about 400-500 meters away)is the monolithic Sri Tthiruvalluvar statue 135 feet high .Sri Thiruvalluvar is considered the greatest saint,moralist ,philosopher-poet of Tamil country of ancient times just like Maharshi Valmiki of Ramayana times and is revered in Tamilnad as a prophet and also as god by some sections of people . It is believed that the great philosopher was born in 31AD .He is famed as author of the famous “Thirukkural”. The Thirukkural is a much revered moral work containing 1330 couplets which tell about necessity of a moral and ethical life and also about necessity of taking practical realistic view. The book is translated into most languages of the world . The Tamilnad government declared 15th January every year as “Tthiruvalluvar Dday”. The great saint stressed te need to lead a moral and ethical life for all people from kings to commoners.

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We could not visit the memorials because our programme schedule was tightly fixed and the air tickets back home were already booked.The Vivekanand rock memorial was inaugurated in the year 1970 and is just half a kilometer from main land. The majestic monolithic statue of Thiruvalluvar inaugurated in the year 2000 was another half kilometer distant from the Vivekananda rock.There was also Gandhi mandapam a few meters away on our side.All three are symbols of Iindia’s spiritual culture . There is a multi-storeyed circular building with spiral stair case to te top to serve as viewing point .The sea is on three sides—the bay of Bengal,the Arabian sea and the Indian ocean.

We stayed for more than an hour at this place . Thousands of people were there in the evening hours and the area was like a big fair. There was a big seaside temporary bazaar selling all kinds of trinkets and instant foods . For us from a faraway place,standing there the land’s end at the southern tip of the mighty Indian Republic was a mightily thrilling experience .

Our people purchased a few big conch shells with the images of rock memorial etched on them. For myself I purchased a special a costly pen only next day in the city .it is in remembrance of spending time for an our near the most inspiring Vivekananda rock.