BY
PRAGYANSHARMA POLAVARAPU
(VRS.SOMANCHI)
(a)
After a two hour rest at our hotel we
immediately proceeded on the way to Madurai Meenakshi and Sri Villiputhoor
temples. There were so many holy temples to visit and we had to hurry. So at
about 4pm 1-8-24 (the same day on which we visited srirangam temple
and sri jambukeswara temple !) we started our journey .The road
journey was really pleasant. Our first destination is Sri Villiputhoor.
We would bypass Madurai city and proceed in the
direction of Virudhnagar (district headquarters town) .There was
endless greenery everywhere and thousands of coconut trees. Roads were
very straight like geometric lines as far as eye could see. It was surprising.
The roads were excellent .It is the way of perfection in constructing new
national highways and state highways.
When I checked the Google map I
observed we were travelling deep into the southernmost regions of
India in the southern regions of the Deccan Plateau . We will
in two or three days reach the land’s end where the three seas (Bay
of Bengal,Arabian Sea and the great Indian Ocean) meet. we were still more
than 200 kilometers north of Rameswaram.My senses told we were entering
a new geographical zone dominated by the sea. The environment and
geography as we knew in Telangana (our home state 800-900 kilometers away
) is different . I may not be accurate in these descriptions . This
is only a rough pen picture. There were large numbers of coconut trees
everywhere.
What a vast country ,I wondered to
myself. In the ancient days people had not the chance to make long road
journeys of hundreds of miles at such express speed as we do now in cars. Now
we can cross towns and villages in matter of hours and form rough ideas
about geography of the surrounding land . I also became aware of the vast
responsibilities on governments involved in protecting the borders of a vast
country bounded by vast seas.
(b)
At 8pm (1-8-24) we
reached the holy town of Sri Villiputhoor (population 75,000 ,Virudhnagar
district ).It is 80 kilometers from Madurai city. It was getting dark.We spent
almost one and half hours crossing a vast road section being widened and
straightened under the national/state highways project. We
saw huge works in progress — cutting off the snake like turns ,using
proclaines to flatten the land, removing boulders ,pouring gravel
etc . It was for us a journey in darkness for more than an hour
guided by fluorescent bands painted on walls and trees , row
of small green LED lights planted on the roadside and also the high
intensity lights of cars going on the road.
After more than an hour of the
tedious travel we at last saw houses and trees indicating the
outskirts of a big town. When the gigantic sky high temple tower was
visible I felt greatly thrilled and realized we entered the holy
town. Previously I did not know much about the famous Sri Villiputhoor temple
but when I glanced through the internet encyclopedia article for a few minutes
I formed a good idea. We were approaching the temple of goddess Laxmi in
one of her earthly incarnations.
Luckily our rntire week of travel was
in days considered holy in Tamil country. It was the holy festival time
in July-August period and we were so extremely lucky. I remember the
temple appeared to be in a narrow street . I can not say clearly as
I do not properly remember. The entire are the nearby street and lanes and the
high temple tower were illuminated with colored LED lights . The loudspeaker
gave out melodious karnatic music and religious hymns. I remember we had
to drive through a narrow area full with crowds of devotees. we
parked the car with difficulty and then walked in a group to the
temple. We entered the temple through a wide lane . An important classical
music and dance program was in progress. There were large number of devotees in
the brightly lit temple corridors.
( c )
After entering the temple we were
dumbfounded and awed . This great temple (which I imagined till then to
be not big) seemed as big and as vast as Srirangam or Jambukeswara
temples! Same type huge halls ,same type corridors with dozens of 25 feet
high stone pillars, sculptures of great grandeur everywhere . The temple tower
was gigantic as big as the towers at Srirangam and Jambukeswar .
We realized that the temple has
two sanctums. I could not first unserstand and simply followed our
people.In one sanctum i.e. in one temple there were the most holy
idols of mother Sri Andal and Lord Ranganatha ( Lord Vishnu). In
this part we saw the great Tulasi garden and the exact spot marked by a green
Tulasi plant where infant Sri Andal was found by Vishnuchitta(Perialwar)
her father. We felt blessed visiting this holy spot and bowed with reverence
where mother Sri Andal was found.
In the other part there was temple of
Lord Vishnu and goddess Laxmi and Lord Brahma .There was the most
holy and majestic form of Lord Vishnu in “Seshasayana
posture”(relaxing on his devine snake bed) . Seeing Lord
Vishnu in Seshashayana posture gave us great thrill and immense
spiritual joy. When we started coming out I again went back to the
sanctum to see the god a second time .
( d )
Sri Villiputtoor temple is a
temple of Lord Vishnu and is also among the 108 “divyadesams”( sri Vishnu
temples to be visited by devotees as specified by sage Ramanuja ) .
However it has become more famous as temple
of mother Sri Andal who is worshipped as an incarnation of goddess
Laxmi. She is famous as composer of the holy Tiruppavai which is revered
as a holy book in all Vishnu temples and is sung by devotees
during festivals .
Legend says that Sri Andal was
found as an infant in Sri Villiputhoor temple’s Tulasi
garden by Vishnuchitha (Perialwar) as mentioned above. He was a
great devotee of Lord Vishnu and a great philosopher and
daily presented a garland of fragrant flowers to the temple. From
childhood Sri Andal considered Lord Vishnu as her husband! One day
priests found a long strand of woman’s hair in the garland brought by
Vishnuchitta and rejected it. Vishnuchitha found that his daughter wore the
garland in her hair earlier before giving it to her father for sending to
the temple. Her father chided and strictly cautioned her.
But Lord Vishnu appeared
in the dream both to the temple priests and Vishnuchtha and told that he
wants only a garland first worn by Sri Andal to be sent to him! Everybody now
realized that Sri Andal was none other than goddess Laxmi in earthly
incarnation.In modern times there is a custom of sending a garland from Sri
Villiputhoir temple to Srirangam on Chitra Pournami day.The god almighty
Sri Ranganatha(Lord Vishnu) reciprocated her love and married her and came to
Sri Villiputhoor from Srirangam to personally take her in a golden
palanquin to Srirangam . Sri Andal on the way lost her earthly
consciousness and fell from the palanquin,disappeared and merged into
Lord Ranganatha amid the great surprise of the people.
(e)
The great festivals and
religious rituals celebrated at this temple attract thousands of devotees
.The divine marriage of Goddess Andal with Lord Ranganatha ( Lord Vishnu) is a
great ten day festival which attracts hundreds of thousands of devotees. There
are great music and dance performances and religious worship and discourses in
this period.At the “Adi Pooram” festival in (July-August) time there is a
great chariot procession of the goddess . We feel that in our present
visit to the most holy temple on 1-8-24 , we were present in the temple on one
of the festival days. We feel greatly blessed. This is also the
reason why we could see the great chariot procession and see a great classical
music and classical dance performance in the night time we were there. Apart
from the festivals there is daily worship throughout the year and
people throng the temple everyday.
(f )
Here in this trip we felt that
the beauty of each temple we saw exceeded that of the previous temple we
visited. I earnestly request the readers to see the dozens of photos of each of
these temples available in the articles witten onthose temples in the internet
. The temple at Sri Viliiputhoor is a treasure house of holy temple art . Besides
the magnificient sculptural masterpieces there are great paintings commissioned
by Vijayanagar and Nayak kings centuries ago on the walls and ceilings and the
two sanctums of this temple. Though they were painted centuries back
(with vegetable colors) they still survive. The walls in the
pillared corridors are also full of bright painitings of gods.
The ancient Pandya rulers are
reported to be the builders of this temple.The awe-inspiring Rajagopuram
i.e. the main temple tower is 192 feet tall and is the eastern
entrance for the temple and is studded with great sculptures of gods
.There are mantapams (pillared halls) for conducting religious worship
ceremonies during festivals. The long rows of bulky stone pillars each 20 or 25
feet high have intricate rock carvings of gods .Internet shows that In a
village just one kilometer south of Sri Villiputhoor there is a most
majestic 1000 year old Shiva temple called Vaidyanathar temple with a very high
majestic temple tower just as in Sri Villiputhoor .But we had no prior idea
about this temple and no prior program .We hurriedly moved towards our
car as it was already 8-30 pm and we had still to journey for two hours to
reach Madurai our next destination.
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