Pilgrimage trips have become more and more enjoyable and interesting over the past few years...
It somehow makes the trip "purposeful" to the elders at home.The stopover at my aunt's home in a near by village ( vishnupuram), the long never ending drive and decent good food leaves me happy and engaged in various ways over the course of the trip.
If we choose to visit the celebrated temples like tirupathi there is this fear(and fun) of waiting in long queues for ages before we get a glimpse of the "murthy" amidst all "jargandi".But the "not so famous" temples offer a lot of calm and a quiet corner to sit and dream(or meditate).
Our first stop was at the "Koothanur" Saraswathi temple. It is I believe the only temple to have a "murthy" for goddess saraswathi.The temple has got lots of fame and loads of devotees off late after the publication of many articles in "Bakthi" type tamil magazines.Its renovated .(after a kumbabishekam a couple of years back).The temple is thronged by youngsters(like me) who pray for excellence in education(kalvi) and art(kalai).The vigraham is clad in beautiful white Saree and lotus is offered.Also the temple authorities have kept a black board where kids write their school roll numbers( of course even i wrote) with the belief the goodness will be showered.The Almighty does not need a uniquely identifiable roll number to be written on the board to bless us nevertheless such trivial practises are a prototype for belief and in turn confidence.
We had a overnight stay in vishnupuram (not very far from koothanur) at my aunt's home.Next day was a "kula deivam" visiting routine for me. Our ancestors were initially settled in a village called senthangudi very close to mayavaram.But they migrated to another village Ponsai later. So our family considers both the temples "Kula deivam".
Senthangudi has a Mariamman temple. It is a very small temple and they distribute excellent Chakkara Pongal prasadam.This one in a village corner is a classic example of old beautiful temples spoilt in the name of renovations and donations.Gaudy , flashy tiles in all possible shapes and sizes are pasted on every possible wall and floor. Some tiles had irrelevant writings also on it like "Brook bond tea".The temple itself is painted in some cheap quality artificial looking colours.But the worst vandalism was by the donators themselves.Just because they have donated a ceiling fan or have sponsored money to fix a tube light there is no need to emboss their names on the fixtures.Every equipment in the temple comes with the a tag consisting of the donator list and their details et all.Somehow these issues are at present beyond my reach .But I believe when people renovate old structures they ought not to spoil existing architectural theme. Just because newly built temples have marble or the like flooring we don't need to redo the existing mud/cement/rock flooring in every temple.Such masking sometimes coagulates the mind and removes the sanctum of the temple itself sadly.
Next we headed to Ponsai .Ponsai can be broken as Pon(gold) +Sai(do). Meaning the crops grow like gold.Here again we visited 3 temples.The spacious Shiva temple, Mariamman and the Aiiyanar temple.
Shiva temple: It is a very beautiful temple.Period.Decently maintained.It is one of those very few temples where the inner praharam( ie where the mulavar is placed) is so huge that an elephant can circumambulate.The Koothadum pillayar which literally means a dancing pillayar is the first vigraham to be seen.The temple has a Shiva lingam, Subramaniya and ambal sannadhi.
Mariamman Temple: The rituals performed here was very similar to the ditto temple in Senthangudi.
Aiiyanar temple:This temple has load Aiiyanar(Aiiyappa) and goddess Buvaneshwari as Mulavar. Apart from this the Veeran present in all Aiiyanar temples are also present. It is a family custom to pray god with Mavillakku ( Mavu + Villakku). Rice floor, Ghee , Jaggery and grated coconut are used to make a tasty mixture.This is further placed in the shape of a Villakku . Ghee is used as the fuel to light the lamp and this is decorated with flowers and Agarbathi and Kumkum.
Later the mixture is distributed as prasadam to everyone in the temple.
That evening back at home in Vishnupuram I visited all the temples of the village ( similar ones). Then I had the pleasure of crossing the arasalaaru ( kaveri) with waist deep cold water . The dis tributary of Kaveri is not so proper these days owing to quarrying for mud and other bad maintenance. A great part of the river channel is chocked with wild bushes. The approach path is also very thorny and bushy.
To be contd in Part II
( Visits to vaitheshwaran Kovil, Seergazhi sattanathaswamy Kovil and Madhuranthagam Ram temple ;) ;) ;)
