In India...In God's Own Land - Part IV (Ahobilam)

    It has been my mother's ten year long wish to visit this prodigious residence of Lord Lakshmi Narasimha. During my week long stay at Hyderabad with my parents, when the topic of Ahobilam came up in casual conversation, I looked at my mother, and said let's go day-after-tomorrow. Amma looked at me with both eagerness and apprehension. She has been told that she would not be able to do this on her leg (three surgeries on one leg in the recent years), and my father is also too old to do this. Nevertheless, we decided that it was now-or-never. Coincidentally, the day of our visit coincided with swati nakshatram (the birth star of Lord Narasimha) and Ekadasi.

    We boarded a train from Secunderabad to Kurnool at 730 AM. The train reached Kurnool at 1 PM. We hired a taxi to take us to Ahobilam (We paid 3000 Rs. that included the return journey. I strongly suspect we overpaid atleast 500 Rs.), and reached the temple town at 430 PM. This delay was mainly due to the difficulty in negotiating with taxi-cab rentals. The ideal way would have been to make the 400 km long journey from Hyderabad to Ahobilam by car, or take a bus from Hyderabad to Allagedda, and another one from Allagedda to cover the last 30 kms to Ahobilam. We are not a particularly bus-loving family, so we chose the more time-consuming way to travel. We also experienced a brief, and joyful delay due to a herd of cows heading back home along the road. Having been completely brought up in a city, I have never see so many cows (over 300) at one time, all calm and gentle.

    We stayed at the Malolan guest house, which is conveniently located adjacent to the Prahlada Varadha Narasmihaswamy temple. The manager, Mr. Badrinarayanan appears to make all the big decisions in the town related to where people stay, what they eat, and how much they pay autos/ jeeps to travel within the town. We also partook all of our meals at the Ahobila Mutt adjoining the guest house. The meals were very simple fare, but was extremely tasty, and felt like home food. The room that we stayed in also was very simple. Nothing extraordinary, but it was clean, and the window overlooked the gopuram of the Prahlada Varadha temple. So, we were quite satisfied with the stay. We paid Rs.800 for 28 hours of stay in the room. The meals are part of voluntary donation towards the annadanam scheme of the Ahobila Mutt. Most people in Ahobilam are conversant with both tamil and telugu.

    The main temples in Ahobilam all close by 5-530 PM, making us too late to visit any of the principal deities among the "Nava-Narasimha" temples. The Prahlada Varadha temple is, however, open until 830 PM. After quickly refreshing ourselves, we walked to have a glorious darshan of the Lord Narasimhaswamy and Amrithavalli. Here we found out that there would be a viswaroopa darshanam the following morning at 5 AM (on the day of swati nakshatra), followed by an abhisekham and tirumanjanam. We paid Rs. 500 to take part in this service (only two people are allowed per ticket), and returned to the guest house to retire early for the night.

    The next morning, we attended the viswaroopa darshanam as planned, and returned to the guest house by 7 AM. At that time, the breakfast (hot pongal and sambar) was served at the mutt, and we departed with an assigned guide by 8 AM. Only my father expressed a mild disappointment that we did not get chakkara pongal as prasadam after the abishekam. We took an auto to a parking point that is 250 steps below the Ahobila Narasimha temple. We started climbing this first flight of stairs at 840 AM. After a wonderful darshan of the Ugra Narasimha (the presider over Guru/Jupiter) who resides in a cave, we were called back by the temple sevaks who were bringing out a hot pot of prasadam. (Anyone's guess what it was? Steaming hot chakkara pongal). This brought a 1000 W smile to my father's face, and any apprehension he had until then about being able to make the upcoming strenuous climb vanished from his mind. The real climbing test only starts at this point.

    We began an arduous trek through the hills, through rivulets and boulders. While some people were pious and strong-hearted enough to do this barefoot, we wore shoes. I silently asked Adisesha to forgive my transgression. (The hills are believed to be the manifestation of Adisesha. Srisailam is supposed to be at his tail, Ahobilam at his stomach, and Tirumala at his hood.). I was thankful for the guide who hand-held my father and saved him from a couple of slips on the rocks from turning into anything disastrous. Three kms and several steps later, we found ourselves at the Jwala Narasimha temple. This is the location where Narasimha swamy held the demon Hiranyakashipu on his lap, and killed him with his claws. The temple has three idols of the God in an ugra (angry) form. The first one shows him breaking out of a pillar. The second shows him fighting with Hiranyakashipu, and the third shows him tearing out his stomach. The idol shows him holding the hands and legs of the asura on his lap with two of his hands, tearing him open with two other hands, wearing a garland of his entrails with two more hands, and holding his signature conch (sanghu), and the wheel (chakra) in his last two hands. This idol is the controller of Mars (or sevvai) among the navagrahas, and worshipping him is said to remove doshas (or imbalances) pertaining to that graha. A pond of fresh water adjacent to the temple  is known as rakta kunda, where Narasimha washed himself after slaying the demon Hiranyakashipu. Due to the eminence of Swati nakshatram, there was a larger crowd than usual at these temples, but nothing that a city person does not see on a festival day at a local neighborhood temple. We finished our darshan by 10 AM, and started heading downwards. 

    After descending from Jwala Narasimha, we started the ascent towards Malola Narasimha Swamy. Here, the God is in a calm posture, while embracing Goddess Lakshmi ("ma"). This deity controls Shukran or the planet Venus. We reached Malola at 11 AM, and it was smooth descending from this point on. On our way back, we also had the darshan of Varaha Narasimha temple, where he is in the form of Varaha (boar), with his snout embracing Bhoomi devi (Lakshmi). Here, he controls the Rahu graha.

Ugra Stambam

     We reached the parking lot by 1145 AM. From here, we hired another Auto to take us to Karanja Narasimha (Chandran/ Moon), Chatravata Narasimha (Ketu graha) and Yogananda Narasimha (controller of Sani/ Saturn) temples. At Karanja, He is believed to have given darshan to Anjaneya Swamy. Lord Hanuman didnot recognize Narasimha Swamy, until he gave a darshan with a bow and arrow, three eyes, and a serpent hood. The symbolism educates that he is no different from Rama or Shiva. At Chatravata, he is smiling, and seems to be enjoying some music. Lastly, at Yogananda, the God is in a yogic posture. This is where he taught Prahlada (his foremost devotee, and the son and heir to Hiranyakashipu) the science of Yoga. Having successfully visited seven of the "nava-Narasimha" temples in the morning, we returned to the Mutt at 1 PM.

    While climbing the hills in the morning, I constantly reassured my parents that only this part of the journey would be difficult, and it would be smooth sailing henceforth. All  further deities could be visited with vehicles taking us to the temple doorstep. How wrong I was! While it was true that the walking was minimal since the return from Varaha Narasimha temple, the afternoon was no less challenging! After a quick lunch, we hired a jeep, shared with three others (A total of eight people including the driver) to take us to Pavana Narasimha (presider over Mercury/ Budhan) and Bhargava Narasimha (Sun/ Suryan) temples. 

    This journey was in many ways more arduous than climbing the hills. Pavana Narasimha is located deep within a forest which has no roads to speak of. The jeeps are in a terrible condition (I imagine even a brand new jeep will only last three trips into the forest before reaching such a state), and the path into the forest is full of boulders, trees scratching the sides, and paths that tilt the jeep 60-70 degrees on each side with alarming frequency. As there were some old ladies in our group, my father and I made the mistake of taking the back seat in the jeep. The ride to the temple takes one and a half hours, with over an hour inside the forest. Every joint in my body was aching, with multiple hits to my head. I can't even imagine what my poor father went through. I was much more vocal with my complaining. The forest department check-post midway through the forest does not allow visitors after 330 PM. After our darshan here, and expiating sins of all our prior janmams, we were ready to head back out of the forest. It was on our return journey, that my father's seat in the jeep suddenly broke. As there were no handles to hold on to in that treacherous road, he was holding on tightly to the bottom of the seat. This resulted in him injuring his finger. We arrested the profuse bleeding temporarily with some cloth, but it did not look good. There was no doctor between the forest and Ahobilam, without passing through the Bhargava temple as well. We visited the last of the nine temples, and headed back to Ahobilam and a doctor, who gave proper care to his finger. The cut was deep enough to expose his veins. The jeep driver completely absolved himself of any moral responsibility. The lesson here is to completely avoid the back seat in this jeep, and carry a first-aid kit. Sit in the middle or in the front if you must. I sat in the middle seat for a while on our return, and there is no doubt that the journey was infinitely more tolerable. I should add: infinitely more safe.

    After a successful completion of darshan of the nine deities on the day of Swati nakshatram, we took a bus to Allagedda from Ahobilam at 815 PM. We reached Allagedda at 9 PM, and boarded a volvo bus to Hyderabad at 11 PM. We reached Hyderabad at 5 AM the next morning with no further incidents.

    The difficulty in accessing majority of these temples has kept the number of visitors at a manageable level. It is because of this, the nature around this place is also well-preserved, and offers a serene and divine setting to this wonderful place of pilgrimage. Despite our minor mishap at Pavana, I hope that they do not develop the roads too much, which will only destroy the forests completely.

   

In India..In God's Own Land - Part II

Two years after In India..In God's Own Land, I was back in the same parts of the country. This time in beautiful Alappuzha, a surprisingly not-so-crowded tourist destination. After a memorable time on the clean and secluded beach with my cousins, my family headed towards Kumbakonam, another paradise for temple lovers. We visited 21 temples in a span of two days, each of them unique, and the youngest of them being at least 500 years old. Each of these temples also have very interesting stories(Sthala puranas). For the temples that I already did not know the stories for, I requested the head priest to enlighten us.

The trip started with our customary visit to our family deity at the Vaitheeswaran Kovil, a massive temple over 1000 years old, and dedicated to Lord Shiva as "the God of healing". Among other numerous deities, it is also known for its unique deity of the planet Mars (Angaraka). We reached the temple  town Mayavaram that morning at 5, and were ready to leave by 11 AM. There are numerous buses that one may ride from here to Kumbakonam, or there are free lance vans willing to drive you there. We were a party of five and paid 2000 Rs for the four hour drive to Kumbakonam. While this may seem excessive, Rs.400 per head to ride comfortably in Indian summer (first week of June) seemed acceptable. Along with this was the driver's added consideration that he might have to drive back alone if he did not find another customer.

Once we reached Kumbakonam and refreshed ourselves, we set out to explore the temples in the main city itself. While there is literally a famous temple at every street, and the city by itself deserves a four-day stay, we contended ourselves with picking a handful of the most illustrious temples to visit that evening. We bargained with a driver of one of the more spacious auto rikshaws to drive the five of us to seven temples around the city for Rs.300.

2. The first of our stops was at the Nageshwaraswamy temple, dedicated to Shiva as the serpent king. It was build by the Cholas in the 12th century AD.

3. Our next stop was at the Adi Kumbeshwarar temple, the 1400 year old temple from which the city derives its name. Built by the Cholas in the 7th century AD, this temple in the heart of the city is spread over 4 acres, and houses a massive water tank. One aspect that stood out  in my mind however was the deity of Goddess Durga. The tall and imposing form was also starkly feminine. Unlike other deities of Durga, her long flowing hair that reached below her hips were braided in traditional South Indian style and adorned with jasmine flowers. That is one sight I cannot forget.

4. We next visited the Sarangapani temple. The central shrine of this temple is in the form of a chariot driven by elephants and horses. The carving on the chariot, Lord Ranganatha in his reclining pose and the divine deity of Mahalakshmi are all equally unforgettable.

5. Our next stop was at the Chakrapani temple. The temple is noteworthy for its massive pillars. The other unique feature is the deity of Lord Vishnu which is in the form of a Chakra.

Chakra Ayudha Purusha(Courtesy :Wikipedia)

6. We then visited the Vyayan Someshwarar temple. Shiva is the principal deity as the lord of "Soma". Goddess Durga was equally scintillating in the form of Padaivetti Mariyaman.

7. Our next stop was at the Ramaswamy temple. This is a relatively new temple, constructed in the 16th century, and dedicated to Lord Rama. The temple pictorially depicts the Ramayana, but it is the principal deity that left its imprint on my mind. The central shrine depicts Rama on his coronation day at the end of his exile. He and Sita are surrounded by life size deities of his three brothers in various postures; Shathrugna is holding a fan, Bharatha an umbrealla, while Lakshmana is holding a bow and arrow. Hanuman is on his knees and reading Sundarakanda. This is the only temple which has deities of all four brothers with Sita.

8. Our last stop for the evening was the Kasi Vishwanath temple. The name is derived from the fact that Lord Shiva at Kashi (Benaras) directed nine rivers to wash their sins at the Mahamagam tank at Kumbakonam. This temple encompasses this wondrous and massive tank, and I believe it is also the only temple where we can see life size deities of nine rivers (Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati, Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri, Narmada, Tungabhadra and Sarayu). The tank itself merits a visit to this temple.

We were satisfied with our coverage on the first day, and were making plans for day two over dinner. While, there is no dearth of temples to visit in the area (Kumbakonam being in the heart of Tanjore district), we kept in mind the fact that our return train journey was booked from Tanjore. On hindsight, it would have been more prudent to have booked it from Kumbakonam itself. The train starts at Tanjore and passes through Kumbakonam on to Chennai, but we could not risk losing our seats on account of our absence from the train. Thus, our planning for the next day involved choosing temples on the road from Kumbakonam to Tanjore. We rented the same car that we came in from Mayavaram for the next day.

9. Our first stop the next morning was at the Thirunageshwarar temple, one of the famous navagraha shrines. Shiva is the presiding deity, and Goddess Parvathi is in a deep penance posture as "Giri Gujambigai". The deity of Rahu has a serpent over its head, and people offer milk to the deity to appease the effects of Rahu in their lives.

10. The next stop was at the nearby Uppiliyappan temple. The deity of Vishnu is imposing, and the sthala puranas interesting, but a note to devotees, that the prasad from this temple is cooked without salt. Lord Vishnu in the story had sworn to eat only food offered to him without salt. Nevertheless, the prasad is very tasty. One can also seek blessings from the temple elephant.

11. Our next halt was at ThiruBhuvanam, a town famous for silks. The temple is spread over acres, as typical of Chola temples. The presiding deity is Shiva, but there is a separate shrine for Lord Sarabheshwara, a fusion of man, eagle and lion. It is believed that regular offerings to this lord will relieve people of chronic diseases.

12. We next made our way to Thiruvidaimaruthur, a temple with Shiva as the presiding deity. The memorable feature of this temple is the tale of Brahmahathi. The tale is of a sin that followed a king wherever he went, but he could not enter the temple and waited at the gates. the king was relieved of his sin when he enters the temple by the main entrance and exits through another. Thus, all devotees are advised to take the circumlocutory path to avoid Brahmahathi that is waiting to latch on to you once you exit. The temple also has deities for the 27 stars in Indian mythology.

13. The next temple on our list was Thirumanancheri. This was not strictly in the vicinity, and was a bit of a drive, but we wanted to visit it nevertheless. The temple is believed to have been the venue where Lord Shiva (Kalyanasundereswar), and goddess Parvati (Kokilambigai) had an earthly wedding. Devotees believe that praying here will ensure that men and women who want to get married will soon find the right consort.

14. The next temple Kanchanoor, is another famous navagraha temple. This one is dedicated to Shukra or Venus. It is very fascinating  to see the knowledge our ancestors seemed to have of planets and their positions with respect to the Earth and the Sun. This is evident from the navagrahas in every South Indian temple, but more so in the the next temple on our list.

15. The last temple that we visited that morning was Suryanaar, a temple dedicated to Surya, or the Sun God, and the navagrhas. The main deity is Surya, dressed in glowing red. The path around the central shrine is occupied by the other deities of navagrahas in their characteristic clothing and positions. It may well have been coincidental, but I wondered about the irony later on. It was close to noon when we visited the temple, and we struggled to walk barefoot in this temple. While other temple premises were also very hot, Surya seemed more unforgiving with his heat.

We returned to Kumbakonam for lunch and a few hours of rest. The temples usually close around noon, and do not reopen until 4:30 or 5:00 PM. At this time, we also checked out of our rooms, and intended to make our way towards Tanjore to board our train at 10 PM.

16. Our first stop of the evening was Swamimalai. It is a temple devoted to Lord Muruga, and is one of the arupadaiveedu. The temple pillar, dome and the deities armor are all adorned with gold. To reach the presiding deity, one has to climb a stretch of steps on a hill. The deity is 6 feet tall, and is as beautiful as any deity I have seen. One interesting memory of mine at this temple relates to my sister in law. She had a dark mole-like object on her face for a few months, and she could never get rid of it no matter how hard she tried. Just as she finished praying to Muruga, the mole fell off, leaving absolutely no mark on her face. Needless to say, she had a glowing and excited smile on her face!

17. The next temple was unplanned, and not on our list, but even a wayside temple in Tanjore district will be a thousand years old, and have an interesting story to tell. The presiding deity at this temple is Thiruvalanchuzhi pilayar. The story goes that the gods forgot to worship Lord Ganesha before the historical churning of the ocean. As they realized their mistake, they  made this deity of the foam that was forming from the churning. Hence, this deity is white in color, and there is no "abhishekam" for this Ganesha as it is formed out of foam.

It is known as "valam suzhi" as the trunk of Ganesha is twisted to the right instead of the traditional left.

18. Our next stop was at Patteeswaram. I had heard so much about this temple, and felt blessed that I was actually privileged to have the opportunity to visit such a holy place. This temple has several sthala puranas associated with it. One of the legends is that Lord Rama had performed three sins when he killed Ravana. While Rama was God incarnate, he was an avatara purusha, and the purpose of his incarnation was to show people the right way to live, and the need to adhere to Dharma even in the most conflicting and hard situations in life. He led by example. The killing of Ravana had brought upon him three sins: Brahmahathi, the killing of a Brahmin; Veerahathi, the killing of a warrior; and Chayyahathi, the killing of a great artist( Ravana was a wonderful player of the Veena). To expiate his sins, Rama installed ramalingams at Rameshwaram, Vedaranyam, and Patteeswaram.  Patteeswaram is also the place where Patti , one of the four daughters of Kamadhenu (the divine cow) was believed to have worshipped Lord Shiva.  

Another interesting aspect of the temple is the deity of Nandi. As we all know, Nandi, Lord Shiva's bull always sits right in front of the Lord making it impossible for devotees to see the God unless they cross the bull. However, at Patteeswaram, Nandi is shifted to the right side of the Lord enabling devotees to Darshan even from the main road. The story behind this is that when Thiru Gnana Sambandhar, a great devotee of Shiva was approaching Patteeswaram from a neighboring town singing hymns, the Lord was impatient to see his devotee and asks Nandi to move aside and not obstruct his view. I thought it was a beautiful story that taught that God  himself comes to the true devotee.

19. The next temple we visited was Thiru Shakthi Mutram. The unique feature of this temple was that the  deity of Shiva is hugged by Parvathi. An offering to this deity is also believed to bring marriage to unmarried people.

20. The next temple was once again a longer drive of about 40 minutes, but Goddess Parvati (Garbarakshambigai) at this temple is supposed to be very powerful, and we were determined to pay her a visit. This was the temple of Thirukarugavur. Repeating the story we heard at the temple in words from Wikipedia : Legend has it that a sage by name Nithruvar once resided in the place with his pregnant wife Vethigai. Once when Nithruvar was out, another sage Orthuvapathar visited the hermitage. He requested for food, but due to her tiredness, Vethigai did not respond in time. This resulted in Orthuvapathar getting angry and cursed Vethigai to have a child with handicap. Vethigai begged the deity in the temple and as a result got a healthy infant. When Vethigai narrated this to her husband Nithruvar, he was surprised. He prayed to the deity in the temple to save all the pregnant ladies who worship in this temple. The temple is hence famed for saving pregnant women to smooth delivery.The worship of the deity is believed to provide cure to all pregnancy related issues. The deity here is termed Garbharakshambigai, meaning saviour or pregnant woman. This place has been referred to in thevaram written by Saint Poet (7th Century AD) Thirugnana Sambanthar and Sundarar.

21. The last temple we visited was the famed Ramalingaswamy temple at Papanasam. This is the only temple where there are 108 Siva Lingas inside a single temple. They are believed to have been installed by Lord Rama. The overwhelming feeling of walking among rows and rows of Lingas cannot simply be put into words, but is an experience by itself. The main deity is Ramalinga, and the 108th linga known as Hanumath linga is separately installed in a shrine outside the temple. The story is that Hanuman went to Kailash to bring a linga for Rama's worship, but before he returned, Rama had already made 107 lingas. When Hanuman was disappointed, Rama gave his linga from Kailash a separate spot away from the rest to be worshiped by all who visited the temple. The other interesting aspect is that Kamadhenu, the divine cow has an equal spot along with Nandi.

We were running out of time to visit Brihadeeshwara temple, and unfortunately could not fit it into our schedule. I was fortunate however to have visited that temple a few years ago.(My ode to the temple). It is noteworthy that every single temple built by the Cholas are built on multiple acres of land, with huge pillars and amazing sculptures. However, it is also disheartening to see that temple patrons are dwindling, and it is increasingly difficult for the temple authorities to maintain all these huge temples, and the surrounding lands. While the more famous ones are likely to survive a few more decades, I really hate to think how long the other ones will last. I found it very hard to walk away from any of the temples that I visited without making some amount of a donation. They are not just places of worship, but glorious  threads of our history and culture.

This was a very memorable trip, and even recounting all the stories seem to bring back the strange inward joy that I had experienced then. Tanjore is a very wonderful place to visit, and a pilgrimage in South India can never be complete without a trip to Kumbakonam.

In India..In God's Own Land

It’s now been a month back since I came back from my vacation in India, although it already feels like a year. Everything seems just so distant and surreal...the morning namaaz from the nearby mosque, the newspaper man, the milkman, the growing buzz of traffic, the national anthem from a nearby school, the steady hum of the mid-day calm and the evening rush of activity…

I was going home after over two years, and I donot ever remember having so many musings. For the first time in two years, I witnessed an act of racism, in Hyderabad airport. The customs officer called a “White” man standing behind me to the front of the queue with obvious preference to color. The next thing that struck me was the number of “non- white” faces around me. I did not even realize how much I missed that until then. Then came our car driver who was honking almost non-stop at a near empty road at 2 in the night! I was finally on the other side of the world.

Two days after I landed, I was off on a trip to attend my cousin’s wedding. I was excited about the wedding as it was my first trip to god’s own land. We were a group of 35 people traveling in the train from Chennai to Trivandrum; needless to say the journey was littered with the latest gossips and re-runs of bygone seasons. I do not sleep well in trains, and was eagerly looking forward to a new day. I was not disappointed. I was up before dawn, and the first hint of sunrise unveiled the glistening Kerala backwaters, surrounded by countless coconut trees (a site I never tired of for the next 4 days). I somehow knew that I was going to have many first experiences. How right I was.

The first and constant and most noticeable thing that one cannot miss is the water served with meals, be it in someone's house or in a restaurant. A typical Keralite serves lukewarm water that is pink in color. The pink comes from the herb pathimukham which has numerous medicinal properties according to the Ayurvedic literature. And of course, it was easier finding Ayurvedic stores in the smaller towns of Kerala than a regular pharmacy.

Trivandrum itself was not very impressive, I was a little let down by the city...to me it neither held the old town charm nor the new city thrills. It was lost in transition. This Kerala trip was however planned as a pilgrimage by my parents, and on that count I was not disappointed.

My first visit was to the 300 year old Anantha Padmanabha Swamy temple in Trivandrum. It was unique for the Lord’s eternal sleeping posture, it’s impressive mythological history, and (forgive me) the Dravidian architecture. I was also told that this temple architecture was unique in Kerala. It looked like any other old South Indian temple to me from the outside, but I understood what it meant as I visited more famous temples deeper and farther inside this land.

Once we were cut loose after the wedding, my parents, a cousin and I made our way to the famous Guruvayur. By the time we reached the temple town, it was 130 am. We were all enthusiastic to witness the “Nirmalya Darshan” of the baby Krishna at 4 in the morning. The lord is woken up, given some butter, bathed and dressed up before being paraded around the temple on his elephant at 6 am everyday. I was very pleased with the pre-dawn darshan and the Sri-Veli (Elephant ride), but what spoilt it for me was our decision to brave the now large queue to have one more peek at the idol. Unlike other famous temples in the south, lord Guruvayur has no preference for people willing to spare a few crisp notes, and only makes an exception to the old and disabled. Alas! If only there was an organized queue! There were tens of thousands of people fighting their way to the front…pushing and squeezing so much that it is hard for the ordinary man to keep his mind on the God for many hours in this ill-behaved throng. My own horrors were too many to pen. In the end, I was glad for a gasp of fresh air and the feel of only my own skin.

Anyway, if you examine this photograph and compare it with the previous one, you will see what I was talking about. The Guruvayur temple looks like a typical Kerala temple. I have never seen this kind of a dome on any Hindu temple in any other part of the country. This was a first for me…

Image copyright with www.mapmytemple.com

We then visited Aanakotai, the place where they housed all the 64 elephants belonging to the temple. It was not a big place and they were chained on atleast 3 legs (some obviously violent ones were chained on all four). They were visibly bored and threw heaps of dirt and hay all over themselves for pleasure. Apart from this, they seemed to be well cared for but I would not be surprised at any protests from animal activists.

Our next pit-stop was the Mammiyoor Shiva temple. A visit here is a must for all Guruvayoor visitors. It is a pleasant small temple, surprisingly not very crowded and has more than enough power to negate the memories of the crowd in Guruvayur temple.

Loaded with information from local people, and having found a good deal on a rental car, we made our way to Thiruprayaar, an abode of Lord Rama. This is famous for it’s divine powers and is unique unlike other Ram- mandirs. The deity is that of only Ram without the customary presence of Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman. This is unheard of and may sound quite ridiculous to some devotees. However, the local men told me that (Malayalam bears resemblance to Tamil, and hence my survival and enlightenment) there are 5 other separate temples to honor not only Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman, but also temples for Bharat and Shatrughna within a 50 km radius all in different directions! Well, that was a revelation. 

Thiruprayaar was beautiful and it was an experience I can never forget in spirit. It is on a low lonely hilltop, adjacent to a huge clear lake surrounded by trees. The temple is majestic, with vast open spaces and scarcely populated. Feeding the fish in the lake is believed to be equivalent to feeding the Matsya-avatar of lord Vishnu. On one part of the grounds, people can burst fireworks by paying a nominal amount. of money .The first time was a shock that literally shook every nerve in my body. The sound of fireworks in the otherwise unearthly calm place was unnerving. A fellow worshiper explained that this was done in order to relieve people of their innermost built up stresses. One never knows when the fireworks are going to sound, and yet I shook less every time and was feeling more at peace with the world. Another memorable aspect of the temple is the deity itself. Rama’s stand- alone deity is somehow cleverly made to emit a burning flame from within it’s forehead. The priest explained the divine illusion. The idol has a small gold leaf ingrained in the forehead and the oil lamps around it are arranged at angles such that they reflect off of his forehead resulting in a mind-numbing effect. I felt like I was in the very heart of God’s land…

We were now on our way to visit the mighty Kodungallur devi. The goddess is as beautiful as she is renowned. The most unique feature of this temple is the  sanctum with idols of the ten devis . They are Brahmani, Narayani, Maheshwari, Indrani, Chamundi, etc. who, according to mythology sprang from each of the gods to help kill the demon Mahishasura, hence acquiring the name of Mahishasura Mardini.

We did manage a few more beautiful temples on our way back to the Trichoor railway station to make our way home. The most interesting among these was was the Koodal-Manikyam temple. It was as big as the Padmanabha temple, it had a bigger tank and it had an elephant...and it had only one sanctum with one deity..that of the great Bharat, whose devotion to his brother has not been given enough praise in our mythological books. I left Kerala in a state of musing and awe, overwhelmed with my lack of knowledge.

The rest of my trip passed in a blur. I attended two more weddings and have no noteworthy experiences. I wait for a new journey…a new experience and another wonderful sense of overwhelm.

An ode to Engineering - I: Brihadeeswara Temple

It was the first time I changed my ideas on grandeur,colorless beauty and progress in engineering.The jolt came when I had just turned into a civil engineer,cocksure of myself and ready to learn progressive engineering in a country whose noteworthy structures were all built in the 20th century, 1000 years after the construction of this phenomenal tribute to architecture and engineering.A visit to Tanjore,the cultural capital(some say Varnasi) of India is sure to be an invigorating experience of walking through history but on entering the Brihadeeswara temple, one would fail to imagine how this structure came to be.
This timeless piece of Dravidian architecture, declared as one of UNESCO's world heritage sites continues to baffle the enginnering world.What is visible to the eye and available on numerous websites is it's architectural brilliance and I shall glorify that later. I was priveleged to climb restricted areas of the temple(thanks to an influencial aquaintance) along with the maratha prince(who coincidentally happened to be there that day walking a politician) who is the decendant of the kings who ruled the greatest kingdom in southern India. He enlightened us on many mysteries of the tallest temple in the world and the stories that were passed to him through generations.
The temple "vimana" visible from a few kilometres away towers to a whopping 216 ft. This huge temple was built entirely of granite, which is one of the hardest rocks on the surface of the Earth.How did people cut these rocks when they had only soft iron tools a 1000 years ago? The Chola king Raja raja who built this temple in about 20 years moved more stone over more distance than the pharoahs who built the great pyramid of Egypt. How did he accomplish it? The perfectly spherical "shikara" or cupola on top of the vimana weighs 80 tons but nobody is still sure about whether it is a single block or whether two perfectly hemispherical blocks of 40 tons each joined perfectly. Nobody is sure how those massive solid blocks were put up there.

The ingeniousness of bygone engineers is evident from the way they could accomplish these seemingly impossible tasks. Using rudimentary hand tools, men chisseled holes trough the rocks along the required path. Having done this, wooden blocks were hammered into these holes and water was poured continously for a period over these wooden blocks. As water seeped through the wood, the blocks slowly expanded propagating a crack along the path until the pressure was sufficient to break it open! For many decades the presence of the massive cupola at that height baffled engineers until the descendant prince revealed a family story that believed the stones to have been pulled along an inclined ramp from a distance of about 6 miles all the way to the apex of the temple by elephants using a roller arrangement. The legend was immediately put to test and the test revealed more astonishing scientific facts. Firstly, elephants were made to drag 80 tons of stone placed on an arrangement of circular logs. The elephants could not drag them...they did it with ease once every single piece of log was perfectly circular in cross section! And remains of a 1000 year old mud ramp was found exactly in line with the temple vimana on it's western side ,directly oppposite the temple entrance in the east.!Nobody knows why the "shikara" never casts a shadow on the Earth.
Nobody ceases to wonder how this structure stands and will forever continue to stand(say experts, not me)even though there is absolutely no mortar/lime/adhesive that holds one block of stone to the next. Adjacent stones were alternately cut into concave and convex patterns and the sheer simplicity and accuracy of this technique hold the stones together! The central temple is a tribute to all geometric aspects of a structure that would lend it stability. The square base (symbloising Brahma) porgressively narrows to be capped by a regular octagonal storey(representing Vishnu) topped by a sphere, a symbol of perfection , a tribute to the Lord Shiva. I was lucky to have been allowed to walk through a barred passage at the top within the temple. I was lucky because I could see how the octagon was balanced by the square. This passage was created because, at this level of the temple, the structure has two layers of walls sloping symmetrically towards each other and the extra thickness of the inner layer helps balance the additional angles and slopes created by an octagon without any oddities! This vimana was built in the center of a huge rectangular complex. The top of the cupola is off by only 2cms from the center of this plot. This accuracy is remarkable and probably impossible in the 21st century with all modern technology. No wonder, this was the only temple that I have visited that has a separate sanctum for it's engineer...How much has engineering really progressed over the last 1000 years?
The obviously amazing aspects of the temple...The shiva linga is the grandest in existence, 25 ft in circumference and 11 feet high and the nandi, carved from single stone is 13 feet high and 16 feet long. The fresco paintings by the Cholas on the ceilings remain colorful and beautiful to date.

Every inch of granite on the walls, both interior and exterior are carved with pictures and forms stories narrating the king's rule. The name of even the most insignificant donor to the temple's construction is carved on it's walls. This temple is not only a storehouse of Chola architecture, but additions were made by the Pandyas and the Marathas who ruled Tanjore in later centuries. The corridor I walked through portrays on it's walls the oldest and most accurate version of all 108 bharatanatyam poses of the Lord Nataraja. It also contains the only portrait ever made of one of the greatest rulers of Southern India, Raja Raja Chola...his head bowed in submission to his teacher...the engineer.

Note: Pictures were not taken by me. I pulled them off the internet