Life Time Best Travel

Hello Everyone, as today is the last day of the competition, I was saving the best one for the last! Yes, the best experience that no one would have ever had in my age! And it will always have the superior golden memories of my childhood, That was when I was in my 9th standard and as my summer vacations were approaching my father decided to plan out for a long vacation. We were all anxious and at that time suddenly the idea of a temple tour to the most prominent temples of India came into his mind. That was a custom tour and our guide was a man of late twenty's named Shiva Shankaran. Shiva Anna (it denotes brother in Tamil) had excellent oratorical skills and he was also highly knowledgable about the places of historical fame. So he drafted us a tour schedule which was around 7 days which excluded the temple we had already visited and he was so kind to include some places other than temples as me and my brother both were small kids. My little brother was so small that he hardly even remembers that we have gone on this trip, but to my mother, my father and to me they are memories to preserve. I was in a state of half and half mind about the trip, One part so excited that it was a 7 days long trip and the other half was like whatever any way they are going to be temples and they might be boring a little. But I rushed finishing my last exam and I was the first one to come running out of my school and there were three days left before the day of departure. Everything from bus tickets, train tickets to hotel reservations everything was all pre-planned and Shiva anna gave us a list of few mandatory things to be carried. After a happy day of list shopping and it was time for us to pack, and finally, the awaited day of departure arrived and Shiva anna came way too early and waited for us. After my pulling the lock my house to check for the safety the Journey began..

The journey was by a private air-conditioned bus who took us to Tiruvannamaiyaar kovil, which is one of the greatest temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, this was somewhere on the early morning where we had the chance of skipping a lot of crowds and that too it was some auspicious day for Shiva. While on road to the temple Shiva anna used to tell us a lot of stories which of those I remember even today. He will even sing songs to entertain us, he also used to encourage me to have a notepad and write all these stories so that I can remember all these moments even when becoming old and I still have it with me even here in Tbilisi. He was not married and Shiva anna took us both as his own kids and he was so nice to us. The story he told about Thiruvannamalai was Once a while a small misunderstanding arouse between Lord Brahmma and Lord Vishnu about "who is the most superior being on this universe" and both started to self praise themselves. As time passed the quarel strengthened. At that time the maha sage Naradar came by that way and he stopped Vishnu and Brahmma and enquired about their fight. After listening patiently Naradhar told that everything came from Oneness and That oneness is Lord shiva himself. But Both them disagreed with this statement. Lord Shiva felt that he should teach them a lesson and He became a massive ball of fire and spoke from the fire to Maha Vishnu and Brahmma telling that the first person to move around the fire and reach the either the top or the bottom of the fire first is the supreme being. Immediately lord Brahmma took the form of a swan and started to fly and cover the whole distance and Maha Vishnu took the form of a Boar and started to dig the ground in order to find the base of the fire. Both felt exhausted and were not able to even see the end bearly with their endless powers. Thus, both of them realized their mistake and prayed Lord Shiva to be in the same form and bless the people. Thus the shrine of Tiruvannamalai was formed and Arunachaleshwarar still blesses the people. It is believed even if one thinks about the wellness of this temple and pray to the lord only once in their lifetime they will attain Moksha or Mukthi. This temple one of the five Pancha bootha Sthala or Pancha linga Sthala one among the five elements of living. In order to signify this incident every year during "Karthigai Deepam" over on the top of the Thiruvannamalai hill a large lamp is usually lit and crores of people visit this temple on that day to see the lord in his Jyoti (ball of fire) form. Thus this temple is the temple of Fire which is one of the five elements. Another important thing about Tiruvannamali is the "Girivalam" Devotees on full moon day walk around the whole hill. This is also done by Hindus as a pilgrimage and Walking starts late in the evenings and ends Early in the mornings. It is believed that Lord Shiva assumes the form of the whole hill on Full moon days and people believe this walk will give them salvation from their sins. This is because Lord Shiva told gautama Buddha that he who walks around the hill on Pournami (full-moon days) will get the true blessing of Shiva himself. The temple was calm and peaceful and it was very great to feel the cold of the mountain and seriously the mountain stood majestic at the back of the temple. After a divine heart filled dharsha of Arunachaleshwarar, we headed along the way to drive to Kanchipuram which was almost around an hour and a half travel.

Kancheepuram had around 1000 temples and the tour inside kancheepuram itself will take us a month so having pre-decided the places to visit we headed straight to the Ekambareshwarar temple. The story was more interesting, Parvati dhevi (lord shiva's consort) was playing with lord Shiva and suddenly without realizing the consequence closed lord Shivas eyes. All activities of the world stooped and the whole universe came to a standstill. Shiva became angry on goddess parvathi and cursed her to go and stay on earth. Parvathy had to leave Shiva and started a thapas (penance) inorder to cool Lord Shiva and get his forgiveness for the mistake she did unknowingly. She started her penance in Kancheepuram. She took plain sand along the riverside and made a linga (an image of Lord Shiva himself and prayed to it). But Lord Shiva is always known to test the patience of his devotees, so he created a flood in the river in order to make the linga to get washed away, but Parvathi held the lingam tight by hugging it tightly. The impression of Parvathi's bangle made two impressions on the lingam. She somehow finally managed to save the lingam. Thus the Ekambareshwarar temple became the temple of Land (It represented earth in the five elements). But lord Shiva did not stop his play, Parvathi Dhevi was praying with her lingam under a mango tree and suddenly Shiva made the mango tree to catch tremendous fire. Without knowing what to do Parvathi called her brother Sri Maha Vishnu for help and he took the crescent moon from the head of Lord Shiva and thus he cooled both the fire and Parvathy Dhevi too. Melted by her devotion, Lord Shiva married goddess Parvathy Dhevi under the mango tree which then became the Holy tree of the temple. Ekambareshwarar temple was awesome and we had our breakfast from the prasadham stall of the temple. I and mom ate Puliyotharai (Tamarind rice), Dad and Shiva anna ate Venpongal, while my sibling got obsessed with the taste of ghee Chakara pongal (jaggery rice). Again the travel started by an express bus to Chidhambaram and Chidhambaram was truly a great construction by Tamilians Centuries back.

We reached Chidhambaram in the evening and the place was very peaceful, having had our lunch on the way we took the reserved room and refreshed ourselves and got ready for the next temple visit. Shiva anna left us in the hotel and went out and came after a while after refreshing himself. I have heard a lot about the Chidhambaram deity in the dancing posture and asked Shiva anna to tell me the story behind this strange posture and he told me the story. In the very begining, the place of Chdhambaram was covered by Mangrove trees. the place was so peaceful and so full of beautiful things that Lord Shiva and Maha Vishnu used to come to this place and have a walk (at times when there was no temple here). At that time they realized about a group of sages who were well knowledged foolishly believed that black magic and magical chants are the supreme things and will help us to achieve almost everything in the universe and to it's extreme they even began to think that gods can also be controlled by these methods. They stopped performing poojas, and started becoming ferocious day by day. Realising this, both the lords decided to teach them a great lesson. So Shiva took the form a merchant of a distant land and lost in the forest along with his Sri Maha Vishnu as his consorts as Mohini. They both went near the Rishis residence and asked for alms. The beauty both Shiva and Mohini were so mesmerizing that the Rishi pathinis (Wives of these rishis) were so obsessed with their beauty that they even failed to notice the Rishis returning after their ritual. This made the Rishis get angry and they started to use the power of their magic rituals and started to act devilish.

• The first sage threw snakes on Lord Shiva which became the ornaments to the supreme's hair, waist and legs. Their eyes were completely blinded by foolishness that they did not realize the arrival of the Supreme himself.
• Secondly they threw a pot of fire to burn him into ashes, but nothing turned out and instead, the fire pot sat neatly on the hands of the supreme.
• They then threw a demon called Muyalakan. The demon was also foolish and he was the absolute one of complete arrogance and ignorance. Lord shiva raised his right hand up and the demon froze into a stone and broke into numerous pieces of small stones when the left hand of god went posing down.
• They then took a very bold step and joined all their ritual powers and made a ring (chakram) that will slice the head of the lord and that ring became the outer ring of the deity.
• The lord then grew huge in size and started beating his drums and danced arrogantly (Rudhra Thandavam) and killed the sages. Having realized their mistake, before dying the sages requested the almighty to stay in this dancing position in this Vanaa (jungle) and the Lord agreed. And thus the "Chidhambara ragasiyam" is that once when screen(maya) is removed one can clearly see the lingam or vilvam in the vacuum under the golden roof glowing like a golden vilvam.

There is also a shrine for Sri Maha Vishnu called as Govindaraja temple.

The sanctum-sanctorum is believed to assume three forms,

01. The Sakhala thirumeni - the deity of dancing Natarajar. he is the "FORM. "

02. The Sakhala- Nishkala Thirumeni - The appearance of the linga as in the "SEMI-FORM. "

03. The Nishkala Thirumeni - The space of the Chidhambara ragasiyam, the empty space within the sanctum-sanctorum as in the "formless. "

After listening to this story I was very determined to have a glance at the formless dharshan of Shiva thereby cracking the Chidhambara ragasiyam but once in the temple I really felt and got lost in the beauty of the sculpture of the lord that I merely concentrated on the Cracking part of the journey.

This temple belongs to the Sky of the five elements.

The temple was an outstanding example of architecture and I felt the maintenance of the temple was not good and there preaviled a lot of stink in some places. There was also small shrines of other deities and the temple had very big pragarams. It was really awesome being there. After a good dinner and a calm sleep, we have to reach Thiruvanaikaval next day to visit the next of the five elements.

On our way we had to see a few more temples before reaching Thiruvanaikaval, They were the Brahmapureeshwarar temple, pillaiyarpatti kovil and Kunnakudi shanmuganathar kovil. The story behind Pillaiyarpatti temple was my next question to him and he said, Pandya king who got very obsessed with the divinity of Pillaiyar (Lord Ganesha) decided to build a temple to him. The business of trade was very common among one of the specific caste of people and they had the routine of reading Animal instinct. So they can easily know when there is going to be a flood, drought, etc. They used to migrate from one kingdom to the other despite the fact that they had to pay a ransom of money as tax and finally they decided to stop being Nomadic and settled in finally in and around Madhurai. Initially before the emergence of sub-castes in between the vysyas Ariyaloor Manikka vinayagar temple was the only temple for the vysyas and after the split, they all asked for a separate temple and the Pandy king constructed Nine different temples for nine sub-castes and Pillaiyar patti is also one of them. Even till now the temple is under the maintenance of the Naatukkottai Chettiyars (The richest subcaste ). As we had a prathana to go to the pillaiyar patti on Chathurthi we had to opt for the long route to skip temples visit Pillaiyar patti and retreat back to recover all of them. It is an oldest known temple because there are only few temples which are drilled out in a cave. It is believed that Vinayagar killed Gajamugasuran and sat here facing North to get rid of the sin of killing and meditated on lord Shiva. The temple was small and dark and only unmarried men are admitted into the sanctum and this temple still follows the belief that Vinaykar is a brahmachari, unmarried man. He was named as karpaga Vianyagar and I bought a small idol of him which is still in my Pooja room. The next visit was to Shanmuganathar temple in Kunnakudi. Shiva anna's told that the story about Kunnakudi was a little different because unlike the other places the temple carried the history regarding the problem with his own vehicle (Vahana). Once when Lord Vishnu and Lord brahmma came to visit Muruga, The Vehicle of Muruga (mayil) the peacock mis behaved with them in the Kailash. Lord muuga after knowing this became very angry and cursed the peacock to become a stone. The peacock then turned itself into a stone and prayed to Lord Muruga. After much of penance, the peacock was forgiven and it re-joined with Muruga as his vehicle [Funny story isn't it]. There Murugan statue was complete six faced with sitting on a peacock along with his consorts Valli and Deivanai. The temple was beautiful too.

The next on road was Sirgazhi Brammahpureeshwarar temple. In order to reach the temple we had to go on a little path somewhere in a turn from the National Highways and this temple was worth a visit because this is one of the few temples dedicated to Brammah in India. I was eager to know why is there a very few Brahmma temple all along India, Shiva anna told me another story, Once again Brahmma and Vishnu started the fight about the supremacy. Then Lord Shiva appeared there and concludingly a decision was taken as the one who will reach the head or feet of Lord Shiva first is the supreme. Vishnu dug faster to reach the bottom as a boar and cleverly Brahmma convinced the fragrant screw pine (the thaalam poo) to lie to that it saw Brahmma seeing on to the head of Shiva. having known that both Brahmma and thalampoo lied badly, Shiva got angry and cursed that the thaalam poo will never be used as a flower for Shiva worship and Brahmma will never have a temple of his own on earth and he also removed one head off from Brahmam. Having realized that he had sinned a lot, Brahmma came to the earth and decided to go on a pilgrimage to worship lord Shiva at various holy sites. Along that way, he reached that place of Thirupathur in Sirgazhi and he worshipped Shiva with a lingam under a maghizham tree near a tank and that is why the water is still called as Brahmma Theertham. lord Brahmma theertham. Lord Brahmma have installed some twelve lingam around this temple and he worshipped Shiva for a longer time and thus Shiva came before him, and liberated him from his sins and gave him back the lost powers. There were 12 small shrines and they all together formed the Brammapureeshwara temple and unfortunately I am not able to find any names of these lingam anywhere in my note pad. And thus if we worship the Brahmma in the Brahmma pureeshwarar he will change our fate entirely.

There was another temple in the list which we visited later but it was also one of the temples of the five elements. It was Kailasanathar Thirukovil called Kalahasthri. There was a small cave where there was a Shiva Lingam. A priest lived them and he used to do worship in the shrine. He used to clean the temple and make necessary pooja and come out and the very next day he will find pieces of bone flesh of meat. The priest thought that it was some animal which dwells in the cave at night. this continued and the priest became eager to see what is happening in the temple and he saw Kannappa nayanar a hunter coming into the temple with a large bag of raw meat. He also poured water on to his mouth and spat it on the lingam assuming that as abhishekam and offered raw meat. The priest was shocked and when he was about to start shouting at him, the lingam started to bleed its eyes. kannappa nayanar tried controlling it with a piece of cloth but the bleeding did not stop. He then took a knife and removed his eyes and placed it on the lingam. The bleeding stopped. Then the other eyes of lingam started to bleed and Kannapanayanar took his legs on to the eyes of the lingam to know where to place his next eye in the correct place. Lord shiva came in place and the priest who was watching all this fell into kannappa nayanars feet. He was completely salvated by Lord shiva. The temple of Kalahasti represents wind. And this shrine is assumed to be built by Shukreevan.

The next one on the way was Mannarkudi RajaGopala Swamy temple, Trust me I really had praised the beauty of Krishna until I visited this temple in Mannarkudi. In this temple, I saw Lord Krishna as a sheperd boy with a whip on hand and turban wearing a dhoti. He was exactly like a small boy with butter, bangles and jewels. He also had acow and a calf on the side. Again the story time and It was, kamsa was a very cruel king who had put his own sister Devaki and her husband vasudeva in prison, Lord Vishnu appeared before them and said that he would be born to them and he stated that this was a part of his Leelai too. While opening the Vasudeva shrine they used to make a special pooja with cow and calf it seems but eventually we all missed it as it was late, and There was a very strange comedy, I saw Krishna with two different earrings a ring on his right year and a kundalam on his left. This was because lord krishna arranged a competition among the Gopikais bathing in yamuna river. the contest was that they should properly wear perfect attire too but at the same time, the one who comes the quickest will be the winner. Krishna also participated in the competion, And he came first. Suddenly one of the Gopikas found that her earing was missing (Krishna in a hurry had worn the wrong earrings) and they were all excited to see the beauty of the earring on Krishna's ears. The temple was small and elegant and prasadham in the temple tasted awesome. The next on road journey was to Sri Koodaloor Azhagar temple. I knew that the temple was famous for its dosa. Sathya varadhan was a well renowned Pandya king who attempted Penanace to lord Vishnu. He gave Dharshan to him inside a Sacred tumbler as a fish. This was believed to the reason why the pandias has the fish flag. According to the legends of Brahmma puranam, this place is described in a Vivid manner. The legendary kings Prithu, Malaydioraja worshipped Sri koodal azhagar and blessed with prosperity and accomplishment of moksha, salvation. The presence of lord Narayana has been glorified by the mystical saints. Always, by singing their Hymns in the temple. Among them, Vishnu Chitta has a unique position. he was invited to Madurai to the Pandya court settle altercates the various sects. The supremacy of Lord Sriman Narayana was established by Vishnu Chitta, by extravagantly the vedic texts in support of his Argument. A miracle at the end of the argument. A purse containing Gold coins suspended in a pole landed down in the hands in the Vishnu Chitta, This was considered as divine acceptance. The king commemorated this victory by seating Vishnu Chitta on the decorated throne placed on the back of Royal elephant. then accompanied by the vedic pundits he himself led the procession. Sri koodal Azhagar delighted by the victory and appeared before the procession saeted on the shoulders of Garuda (the divine vehicle) and blessed Vishnu Chitta. Vishnu Chitta got himself into the countless beauty of the lord and blessed the lord by regaining his senses with a long life by conveying his wishes in the form of twelve verses known as "Thirupallandu" (in tamil). These verses he recited by turninig them with the ringing bell tied to the elephant. At the holy feel of Sri koodal Azhagar, he offered Mangalasasanam. Even to the present day, these "Thirupallandu" is recited as the beginning invocations in the shrines. As we have already coverd the shrines of Thanjavur and kumbakonam, we skipped them and we decided to reach Thriuvanai kaval straight, And then reached the Jambukeshwarar temple. The story about Thiruvanai kaval was interesting as always Brahmma had the power to create everything, desired to create a woman he loved, thus incurring himself in Sthree Dodham. He approached lord Shiva for help. Shiva was about to leave Kailash and Parvathi devi expressed her desire to accompany him. But lord Shiva told that Brahmma is weak towards women and advised her to stay back. Goddess then suggested that she will get dressed up like a man and walk in his form and he would follow her in her form. Agreeing to the suggestion, both set out in disguise. This event is described to prove a philosophy That Lord and mother are one. They then showered their blessings upon Lord Brahmma and pardoned his sins. During the Brahmmotsavam this event is celebrated on the banks of brahmma theertham. Mother Ambika performs pooja to the lord during Middays and this place is one of the Shakthi peetas known to the world.it is also said that mother Ambica performed penance to the lord here on earth. This is a Shakthi peedam too where During mid-days the priest will wear saree, have the crown of the goddess and will pray to lord Shiva. During this time the Devotees worship the Preist as lord himself. The priest will make special prayers to the god and along with Go puja (cow and calf worship). There were no doors in the sanctum sanctorum and there was only nine windows. Some people say that They represent the Nava-graha while others say that they represent the nine holes in the human body which should be kept controlled. It is believed that the lord played his miracle here too, just like how did in Madurai. A Chola king when he was about to construct the first praharam had to undergo an enemy invasion. though duty compelled him to go to war, his mind was almost completely on the temple and Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva himself came in disguise as Vibuthi Chettiar and completed the work. Just in order to remember this incidence A day in a year will be dedicated to Vibuthi chettair and the deity is covered completely with Vibuthi (holy ash). Early days it was believed that mother Ambiga was in a very furious form. To control her angry and to cool her down it was written that Adishankara himself installed a Chakram for the temple, Unlike other chakras which used to be in the feet of the goddess this chakra applied all the powers of Sri chakra and he applied it as earings to the goddess. Thus Parvathy dhevi became completely merciful and adding on to this Adhi Shankarar installed Lord Muruga and Lord Vinayaka too. Then there lived two assistants of lord Shiva Puspadhandan and Maliavan. Pushpadandan and Maliavan began to fight terrible with each other on the fact of who is the greatest and ranked them before each other. In anger, both of them cursed each other as to be born as a Spider and as an elephant. Maliavan was born as a Spider and Pushpadandan as an elephant. Both decided to pray without fighting with each other but the spider went into the ear of the elephant and murdered it. the elephant was given salvation by lord Shiva while the spider was ordered for a re-birth for his attempt to murder. The spider then was born as a Chola king then as Kochengat Chozhan. He built Mada temples to Lord Shiva in which elephants cannot enter. He also renewed many old temples of Shiva in such a way that the elephants cannot enter. I found that there was a shrine for the king too. I also had the chance to see that there was an unusual Muruga statue near the temple. Muruga appeared furious as if he is crushing someones head, and its believed that Swamy Arunagirinathar prayed to lord muruga to protect him from lust and Muruga here crushes the head of the demon of lust it seems. this is the only place where I saw Muruga so furious. The lord here got his name called Jambulingam as there lived a sage called Jambu. Jambu made a Siva lingam out of Mud and started a Penance. The Lord appeared before him and offered him a "Jambu" a naaval fruit. The sage ate the naaval fruit with its seeds thinking that spitting it out will be like irrespecting the Lord. Once when the seed reached his stomach it began to grow up into a large tree and it pierced the head of jambu thereby making him attain salvation. There was a naaval tree and I felt scared to touch it assuming it to be a person and this is the sthala of water among the five elements.

The next on a route near Sirkazhi was a very ancient temple which has the greatest site where the goddess herself appeared to feed a small child and get him to stay away from starvation and finally he grew up and became one of the very famous Shaivite saints. This temple has everything you need for a great eternal bliss. The first and the most important thing which you will see is the temple tank where thirugnanana smabamdhar got his knowledge. he was left by his father on the pons while he went to take bath in the water. In hunger the baby started crying, and on seeing the baby cry Shiva ordered Parvathy to feed him and goddess herself fed him with her milk. And even today the image of Thirugnana Sambandhar is fed with sweetened milk and offered as a prasadham to his devotees it seems. From there we reached the Trivikrama swamy temple the temple of Trivikrama swamy was really mind-blowing. The deity was so big that I had to move back a lot to have a glance at his full stature. If you had read my article about the Vaishnavam, you would have known that vamana was one of the incarnations of Vishnu. Vishnu in Trivikrama temple is exactly the same perumal depicting his Vamana Avathar. A quick review of the history of Vamana is with a view to teach a lesson to the king who was so self-praising, Lord vishnu came to earth became a dwarf and went to the site where the King was performing his penance and requested for a piece land measuring by his feet. The king with knowing the person who has come is the Supreme he granted that wish and with a step, he measured the sky, with the second the earth and asked where can he keep the third step, for which the king bowed down and offered his own head. Generally, the lord is seen in all temples holding his wheel in the right hand, conch in the left. In Tirukovilur temple it is the absolute opposite. The lord's hand looked as if he is asking mahabali for the third step. The body of the lord is a wooden statue it seems and The it was immensely tall. The lord is called as Ulaganathar or ulagalantha nathar which means the one who has measured the whole world. The main deity of wood is in the Sanctum sanctorum and this place is one of the hundred and eight Divya desams. The temple was absolutely great and had a great dharshan. we had a good stay at Tamil Nadu Tourism hotel in Thanjavur.

Then the next was Srivilliputhur Andal temple, This temple was dedicated to the Andal who was an intense devotee of Sri Rangam ranganathar. The name of the presiding deity was Vimalakruthi Viamanam. Vadavriksha is accompanied by Sridhevi adn Bhudhevi massaging his lotus feet. There were a lot of paintings hung on the temple wall of Garudalwar, Senaimudaliar, Surya. Thurumbu naradar. Brahmma on his naval, Sanaka rishi, Gandharvas chord and the wheel are beautifully sculptured. There was also an entrance facility to the temple via the Viamana from where the devotees can have dharshan of head and feet of the lord. The temple that (vehicle) was carved with a lot of artistic beauty. Andal, Rangamannar, garuda appear together in the temple. The temple Gopuram is pictured and it is the symbol of the government of Tamilnadu. Sri Andal had the habit of wearing the garland prepared for Rangamannar and look at the mirror to ascertain herself whether she would be a good match to lord himself. her father periyalwar without knowing this used to take the garland to lord every day. One day periawar found a hair of Andal in the garland. Perialwar understood the truth and begged pardon to the lord but the lord replied that he was very fond of that garland and told him to bring it in the same way. Andal was also not willing to marry a human and was waiting for te lord to have her hand in wedlock. The lord directed Perialwar to bring her in a palanquin to Sri Rangam where he would marry her. Andal reached Sri rangam and mingled with the lord. The lord gave dharshan to Peialwar along with Andal. sri villiputhur is one of the most important sthala of Vaishnavism. The garland worn by mother Andal is sent each year to Tirupathy the day before the commencement of Brahmmotsavam in the hills. Similarly, for a wedding festival, garland will come from Tirupathi for Andal Thirukalyanam. During Chithirai festival in Madurai kallahagar wears the garland worn by garland. This is temple is also one of the 108 Divya desams.

Then on reaching Trichy by the National highways, we got down at Samayapuram mariamman temple in Trichy (Tiruchirapalli). Goddess Parvathi dhevi "Shakthi" is worshipped all through the world in thousands and thousands of forms and one of that includes the form of worship as Mariamman. The goddess is often associated with prosperity and health. Local beliefs associate this deity with cures for diseases such as smallpox and chicken pox. it is believed that Shiva created Kali, out of the poison that he had swallowed, and decreed that he will kill Daarukaasuran. Having originated from the Kaalakoota poison, she assumes the name Kaali. mariamman is also believed to be a form of Kaali it seems. She is also called as mahamaayi or seethala Devi. It was also written on the temples wall sculpture that Dasaratha who was the Father of Rama was one among the devotees of this temple. It is believed that the processional of an image of Mariamman was in the possession of the Vijayanagara kings and that when the empire neared destruction, this image was brought down to Tamil Nadu in a Maragatha thandha pallakku (carrier). It is believed that the Pallakku bearers kept the pallakku in Samayapuram and later they realized that they were unable to lift the pallaoquin from the ground. A temple was then established in the vicinity of Tiruchirapalli, which was later expanded by Vijayanagara Chokkanatha Nayak of Madurai. Samayapuram was a local capital of the Vijayanagar rulers and was known as Vikramapuram. The temple has a separate shrine for processions and the moolavar sanctum is separate. I also saw the shrine of Karupanna swamy located in the nearby locality.

The next on the list was Uraiyur temple and it is also called as the Vekkaliamman Temple. There was an old priest who made all the poojas in the sanctum sanctorum and he was so kind that he told me almost every story about the temple. He said that mythically it was believed any temple built north will bless the kings with valor which in turns leads to winning of the battle. There lived a sage named as Sarama Rishi who lived in Woraiyur was having a wonderful garden with rare flowers in it. He used to worship Thayumanavar swamy of Trichy everyday, offering garland made of flowers from his garden, to lord Shiva. A local florist, Pranthakan, saw the beauty of the flowers and started taking flowers from the sage's garden and he supplied it to the kings' palace, to impress the king.

As the king was happy with these flowers, Pranthakan started stealing those flowers from the garden regularly. Every day, Rishi started finding the flowers missing from his garden. He then one day realized that Paranthankan was the culprit and he went to the king and started complaining about the culprit but the king did not give any reply nor he respected him and that made the Sage very angry and he directly rushed to Thayumanava perumal praying thereby putting an end to the activity of stealing flowers. the lord then turned east (before it I guess he was facing the west ) towards Woraiyur and with his powerful eyes Started a sand storm which damaged everything upside down in the Uraiyur city. Sand was filled everywhere and the people were helpless and they did not know the reason for this storm. The people seeked Vekkaliamman's help and she went to Thayumanavar and prayed to bring the anger of Swamy down. Thayumanaver subsuded his anger and sand storm came to an end. Despite that, there was no more sand storm the people suffered a lot without shelter. So the goddesses decided to live in a temple without roof unless everyone gets as a shelter for themselves in the city. And the priest also added that a lot of people came with an intention to build a roof to vekkaliamman which all ended up in vain. I felt that she is so soft at heart and was concerned intensely about her devotees too.

Then tour continued to Aranganathar Temple in Sri Rangam. This temple story was narrated by Shiva anna again and he also asked for a promised from that I should write the story of this temple in Tamil. I agreed. Thiruvarangam was one of the temples depicting the Matsaya Avatharam of lord Mahavishnu. There was a lot of stories encircled behind the Matsaya Avatharam of Vishnu and one among these were the devas lost the book of the Vedhas after they were defeated By the Demon named Shomukhan, and the devars approached Brahmma. Brahmma seeked the help of Lord Narayana. The supreme then found out the location of the heart less demon. He hid under the sea. Lord Narayana took the form of Matsya (Fish) defeated the Asuras and handed the vedhas back to brahmma. It is believed that lord initiated vedhic lessons to Brahmma in this Sthalam. The hand of the deity in the sanctum sanctorum will show a symbol of Aadhi Mudhra. The deity's image was sculptured by Viswakarma. And there lived a king who had a very wealthy prosperous life except for the fact that he did not have a son. Sage Naradha suggested him to observe a penance to lord Vishnu and the king did so too in this place of Thiruvarangam. The lord was so huge sleeping on a bed of snake and the fragrance in the temple still stays in my heart. Then it was time to go on to the land of coconut trees! Alas to Kerela. We had to go by train and the scenarios on both sides of the train were awesome. It was completely green and I loved it on the whole.

Our trip to kerela was to see the Pancha Pandava shrines. The first of them was Chengannur of Yudhishtra. This temple was in Kottayam. The main deities are lors Shiva and Goddess Bhagawathy. There is also a temple dedicated to Lord vishnu and people believe that this temple was built by Yudhisthra himself.

what is unique here?

There is a belief that the goddess of this temple will also suffer from Menstrual cycle and will have her periods once in every month. People also believe that in the southern part of the temple, several great mantra books are buried and they will have portions preparation method which will help to get rid of the poison. They also believe that if a devotee stands over a rock and sees over the tip of Sree Gopuram for the entire day they will never have poison infestations. There the people told about a story which was, Long ago in centuries there was a small boy and a saint. The saint was so over proud of himself. The boy suddenly showed him a pipe and told him that there was a snake and if he could bring the snake out it means that he will win, but the snake did not turn up, no matter how hard the saint tried. The boy was blessed by Dhevi herself so immediately the snake turned up and started to chase the saint himself. The saint pleaded to the boy to stop it and the boy then again caught the snake and dropped it in the ole. It is believed that this snake still stays in this hole and it will bite if you keep your hand and make false vows.

It is also believed that Shiva cut the body of his consort shakthi dhevi and threw it all over India. The middle part fell in this place where this shrine is presently located and that made the goddess in this Shrine gets Periods. There is also another belief that the consort of Lord Shiva is not Parvathy and it is Kannagi, the tamil lady who burnt the city of Madurai for the injustice done to her husband. According to another story when the marriage of Meenakshi Sundareshwarar (Shiva and Parvathy) happened the entire world attended the marriage and the mother eath lost her stability, so agasthyar had to go to South. The sage made lord Siva promise that he would celebrate the marriage again in the South. When lord Shiva came with Parvathy to Chengannur she attained her puberty. The devas celebrated this event grandly in Chengannur. Then this place was completely forgotten and one day when a tribal woman was sharpening her sword on a sword, blood started oozing out. They then called the brahmins and from the place and a beautiful Sivalinkam was found. the godess was also found from the earth in the Northwest part of the temple. Then one day when the chief priest opened the door of the goddess and he was shocked to see the cloth which the god had a stain. The cloth was shown to the ladies of the Puzhathu madam and they confirmed that Godess was undergoing her periods. The women from these houses were left in with the goddess in a separate temple and close the door. Before this incident used to take place once in a month but nowadays it happens only once in four or five years. The story and the respect they give to girls are very awesome.

The next one online was the temple of Bhima. The deity of the temple was named as Maayapiran by the Sapta Rishis

01. Athri.

02. Vashistar.

03. Kaashyappar.

04. Gouthamar.

05. Bharadwajar.

06. vishwamithrar.

07. Jamathakkini.

Once, vrukshabadhri, who was the son of Sibhi Chakravarthy, ruled an empire where there was flood and there was no proper vegetation and wealth and the beauty of the entire empire started to decrease. At that time the king thought that if any dhaanam and Dharmam would be performed, so he decided to give dhanam to the Saptha rishis and the whole kingdom went on to a very bad state. So, they found some problem might be with Vrukshadherbi and did not accept dhanam. But he wants them to accept his dhanam and he asked his palace officials to keep some gold inside the fruits and give them taht, so that they will accept simultaeneously and his dhanam simultaeneously. The Rishis got to know this too and they did not accept that dhanam also. After the dhanam of fruits also was rejected by the Rishis, Vrushabharbi got angry on all the seven Rishis and tried to kill and as a result of this cruel mind, he started an yagnam gain from which a demon appeared and the king ordered the demon to kill all the saptha rishi. After this, the all-powerful has sent a Indira to destroy the demon and thus he protected the saptha risis. This sthalam was has a deity The Maayapiran who is a 3 to 4 feet of height statue of stone. The temple was too crowdy and I was not able to remember any flourishing experience except the face of the deity and it was an amazing face which will stand in your heart if you visit it even once.

Aranmula metal mirror is a rare piece of craft that had existed even during the vedic period of Indian history. the myth about the origin and secret of its composition makes it truly a fascinating craft. As traditional mirror making art transformed into technology and the artisans believe that composition of the metal mirror is divine and some undiscovered and some undisclosed metals alloyed their silver, bronze is responsible for their distortion-free images.

The story was that nearly five generations ago there was lived a few craftsman who came to Aranmulai from Sankaran Kovil near Tirunelveli. They came at the behest of the King of Pandalam., who asked them to also join and help in the building of the Aranmula temple. These craftsmen also apart from carrying out their tasks they also made tasks like making ornaments, metals cooking vessels and thus at that time they found out the reflecting property of a particular copper alloy. This alloy was used for making this mirror called as the Aranmula kannadi which was the Aranmula mirror. Aranmula kannadi is believed to be a precious gift and learning the art of making it is almost impossible by other people than their family members. A village in pathanamthitta district in Kerela India are the exclusive manufacturers of this mirror. this handicraft was one of my favorite childhood possession of mine. There was another story recited to me by the priest that the crown made for Aranmula Parthasarathy cracked and the King wanted the head bronze-smith to fix it or manufacture a new crown. The Smith worried that he did not have enough metal and the time given by the king was too less for buying of new metals. He came home and told his wife about his worries. While they were fast asleep, the goddess appeared in his dream and told him a proportion for an abronze alloy that shone like a mirror and asked her to tell the ladies of the community to surrender their gold ornaments. All ladies did so and surrendered their gold ornaments. All the gold were collected and sold to buy sufficient tin and copper. that night she went and told all ladies to do as per the orders of Dhevi. The crown made of this combination was definitely a modern marvel. The Makudam was (crown) was given and presented to the lord. the chieftain of Aranmula Liberally patronized the craft persons and even laid down an order that the mirror should form one of the eight articles used in marriages.

The next temple was Paambanaiyappa -Perumal temple, Thiruvanvandoor

It is believed that this temple was built by Naghulan, one among the pandavas. Once Naradhar got a saabham from Brahma and he came to this sthalam and worshipped Paambanaiyappan. At that time, srimaan narayanan came in front of him and explained about saivam and vaishnavam. The deity here is alled Pambanai appan.

So I guess you all have enjoyed reading my article too. Thank you ERASMUSU for giving me such a pleasure of sharing thoughts about my country too and I will remember this experience always. Hearty congratulations to everyone who participated and have a great life... Bye, bye guys...