M16-SRI ANANANTHA PADMANABHASWAMY TEMPLE-MANY DETAILS

By PragyanSharma Polavarapu

(A)INTRODUCTION

(1) The temple’s gopuram(the holy tower) is 100 feet high and has magnificent sulime sculptures of Hindu gods . There is a magnificent sculptured corridor directly leading upto sanctum sanctorum and it has 360 majestic stone pillars of great

hight with beautiful sculptures of gods. In addition there is the famous “Ottakkal Mantapam” a little monolithic entrance mantapam before the sanctum . It has a base stone platform (2mx2mx2.5 feet). Half of this platform extends into the sanctum sanctorum. Thus its surface in the Ottakkal mantapam is as holy as floor of sanctum sanctorum. Only a devotee who sacrifices all his wealth and belongigs to god and surrenders to god can stand on it. The great Travancore king Marthanda varma who renovated and reconstructed the temple donated the entire kingdom to Lord Anantha Padmanabha.

(2)Since 2000 years or more there was lot of sea trade (by huge sail boats) with ancient West Asia through the Arabian sea and with South East Asia through the Bay of Bengal. Sea. Even 2000 years ago there were mighty Dravidian empires in south India –the Chola, Pandya and Chera empires . They were perhaps a little older than the Magadha empire of glorious Buddhist times.The empires of Vijayanagar ,Hoyasalas ,Kakathiyas etc in south and empires of Gupthas, the Harsha empire etc in the north were of far later times .

(3)From the times of Cholas,Cheras and Pandyas there was busy sea trade in spices. India and Sri Lanka were famous for spices . There was perhaps trading also in cotton,silks ,sandalwood, elephant ivory ,pearls, food grains etc. These sea routes were perhaps active even 3000 years back i.e. thousands years before the Europeans discovered a sea route to india.

(4)‘Thiruvananthapuram’ means “The City of Lord Ananta” or city of Lord Vishnu. Lord Anantha Padmanabhaswamy is the family diety of the Travancore royal family.Like the other great temples we visited during this trip, the Sri Padmanabha Swamy temple is also of vast size.But centuries ago there was only a small temple with a wooden statue of Lord Ananta Padmanaba Swamy .

(5)The sight of Lord Vishnu(Lord Padmanaba) reclining on the serpent bed appealed to hundreds of thousands of devotees. The statue became so famous that in many of the great south Indian temples which we had seen in this trip there are similar statues of Lord Vishnu in those temples(in the Lord Padmanabha posture).

(6) Lord Padmanabha means “ the mighty Lord Vishnu from whose navel grows a mystic lotus containing the world of Lord Brahma”. Lord Vishnu is ruler of universe of billion galaxies. His body may appear outwardly just small but from a mystic view it is as big as the sky, the mountains and the oceans and contains all the worlds in it. From the stomach of lord Vishnu a divine lotus arises.The lotus itself represents the Brahma Loka. On this mystic lotus sits Lord Brahma the symol of world’s divine knowledge.

(7)We had heard of the mystic body of Lord Vishnu in two places—(a)when He appears before the mighty warrior Arjuna just before the Mahabharata war breaks out and shows in it all the gods and warriors of past and present (b) when the wily Kaurava prince Duryodhana wanted to have Lord Krishna bound in ropes and imprisoned.Lord Krishna cuts all the iron chains and ropes with a small movement of his body and shows for a moment a radiant body of mountain size.

(B)SOME INTERESTING DETAILS

(1)The present statue of stone was consecrated in the time of the great Travancore king Marthanda Varma in 1729 AD . it is stated that earlier there was a similar wooden idol ut it was damaged in a major fire .while creating the present statue the shilpis(sculptors) used 12009 holy “Salagram” stones specially got from Nepal. A special Ayurvedic amalgam called “Katusarkarayogam” was used to fix the saligram stones in the statue. The saligram stones are small round fossil stones with curved lines as on sea shells. Traditional Hindus treat these stones as very holy and represent lord visnu. They keep the saligram stone in prayer chamber beside the god’s idols. They treat it as representing lord Vishnu and feel that having saligram stone in the prayer chamberin house helps in acgieving a holy and spiritual life style, protection, health and wealth and prosperity

(2)Within the temple complex there are temples for Ugra narasimha Swamy and Krishna Swami . The Krishna temple has a special independent status.There are temples for Lord Rama, Lord Vishvaksena (the god with similar powers like Lord Ganesha in Srivaishnava tradition) , Vyasa and Ashwatthama( the deathless “Chiranjeevis” now doing meditation in Himalayas) and Lord Sasta. There are statues of Lord Garuda( the Divine Eagle and vehicle of Lord Vishnu) and Lord Hanuman.Tradition states that Lord Parashurama and Lord Balarama (other incarnations of Lord Vishnu )visited this temple .A temple for Lord Balarama was built in a nearby town.

(3) On 17 January 1750, the great king Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma,a great devotee of lord padmanabha surrendered the Kingdom of Travancore to god Lord Anantha Padmanabha Swamy and pledged that he and his descendants would be vassals of the deity and would serve the kingdom as Padmanabha Dasas and would bear that title in their names. The king’s devotion to Lord Vishnu was unparalleled

( C )THE MAJOR FESTIVALS

The Aipasi festival in the October/November) and Panguni festival in (March/April) each lasting for 10 days . The festivals culminate with a (holy bath) procession to the beach in which the maharaja takes part .The festival idols “Utsava Vigrahas” of Padmanabhaswamy, Narasimha Swamy and Krishna Swami are given a ritual bath in the sea, after the prescribed pujas. After this ceremony, the idols are taken back to the temple in a procession that is lit by traditional torches.The annual festival Navaratri utsavam lasts for 9 days. The famous Swathi Sangeethotsavam music festival is held every year during this festival .The festival called “ Laksha Deepam” is celebrated once in 6 years. Vedic hymns from three Vedas are chanted for 56 days. On the last day a hundred thousand oil lamps are lit in the temple .

(D)SOME HISTORICAL DATES

(1) Work on the 100 feet high Gopuram was started in 1566 AD.

(2)There was a huge fire in 1686 AD and the temple suffered great damage and the wooden idol of Lord Anantha Padmanaba was extensively damaged.

( 3 )In 1729 AD the famed Travancore king Marthanda Varma got the temple entirely reconstructed .

(4) The sanctum sanctorum was reconstructed in 1730 AD

(5)The huge (2meterx2meter) monolithic stone platform in Ottakkal Mantapam was laid in 1731 AD.

(6)It took two years for completion. The old wooden idol was replaced by the present glorious statue after conducting long holy rituals to which perhaps many kings,princes and philosophers attended and great presents were made in the name of the temple..

(7)It is mentioned in the temple history that 4000 sculptors, 6000 labourers and 100 elephants worked for a period of 6 months to finish the construction of the temple.

(8) A magnificient temple corridor with high sculptured pillars (like the corridors in other ancient south Indian temples like Rameswaram and Srirangam,was constructed having “365 and a quarter” pillars, symbolizing the days of the year.

(9) The temple tank”Padma Theertham” too was also beautified while reconstructing the temple.