To my grandma, it is important that everyone of her children and grandchildren come and see her at their ancestral place....I remember when I was 6 or 7, She was very upset that her children and grandchildren have no time to come back to the place of their childhood...She told me ' Everyone is just taken in by the charm f the city that they have forgotten their roots'... And I solemnly promised her then 'Don't worry paati (grandma) ... I will come back Every year..'
After a 5 hour we reached Mayiladuthurai..... The place where my father and his brothers n sisters grew up...... I was coming back after 7 years.... As we entered the house, my aunt rushed to greet us and hugged me ..... My grandma was smiling....
6:00 P.M...My aunt would wake me up..... We would go to the temple gardens nearby and spend around 2 hours plucking flowers .... My aunt would be busy delegating work to her retinue... There would be garlands made the previous nights, which would be then placed on each of the deity's... My dad and grand dad would go on their usual walk around the place...If Kaveri was full, we would head to the banks of the river for our baths.. .. Else , we would bathe in the backyard , out in the open, under the azure sky... After breakfast, the next few hours would go in making fresh garlands for the day..... My aunt and her "gang" would discuss theological issues .... When I was around , (and wasn't engrossed in a book) those hours would be filled with stories of lord shiva and his better half, his devotees and their tales of devotion.... My grand mom and grand dad would bicker over trivial issues....
4:00 P.M.... We would rush to the other temple 'Periya Kovil' ( meaning Big temple) to distribute garlands.... There would be just a handful of localites, and I would feel as if I owned the place.....
7:30 P.M... My grandma would go and sit in the vaasal ( house entrance) and greet the people on the roads.... She knew everyone, and everyone knew her......
9:00... After dinner, while sharing betel leaves and tobacco, the elders would discuss the "what's up with whom in mayiladuthurai" ......
15 years later....
My aunt was still over-active and vigorous with her schedule.... I chose to go for a jog with my dad to the nearby grounds and was surprised to see some health conscious girls jogging too... The ground was crowded with people from all age groups.... Enroute home, we saw one of the big departmental stores that had come up.... There were fancier cars on the roads... And ofcourse the prevalence of cell phones ..... The people were still the same, women clad in their sarees ... The number of women in salwars seemed to have gone up above Nil...
In the evening, we hit the Periya kovil... The temple was still as beautiful as before.... Calm and serene ...Most importantly, un crowded and un hurried... One can really feel the beauty of the olden day architecture over here....
The Mayuranathaswami temple is also called the 'Big temple' of the town, and the goddess here protects her devotees who surrender and worships her. Hence she is called Abayambikai alias Anjal Nayaki ( Abayam means giving protection ). Famous poets like Appar, Sambandhar, Arunagiri nadhar have rendered songs in praise of the deity. Sri Muthuswamy Dikshidar and Saint Thyagaraja who were among the famous Sangeetha Mummoorthis, met in this temple and sang in praise of the god. Dikshidar has rendered nine krithis on Abayambikai called Navavarna krithis.
The other temple I frequented was Sri Kasi vishwanatha Swamy temple.This temple can conveniently be called as a branch of Kasi Vishwanatha temple. Pilgrims, who cant go to Kasi, can worship here and get the same effect. This is situated on the banks of Cauvery.
If one wants to go temple hunting for their architectural beauty, temples such as these are a must see....calm and serene , one can enjoy their beauty in peace.. The acoustics of these temples is excellent... The stones used for construction are such that the temple interiors are always cooler.... The kolam (pond) within the temple premise is supposed to have medicinal value, which was why a dip in the pool was mandated.... Temples also used to act as a community centre those days, an education centre , a place for concerts and performances , a place where the kings could serve food and give away charities...... They also served as a refuge for people in situations like storms....
When we got back, my grandma was in the vaasal waiting for us.... A cold bath under the starlit sky and hot dinner......
Cell phones had come and gone... New apartments... The internet revolution had touched mayavaram too.... mayavaram is now on the www...... But life in my gran's household was frozen in time......
The wiki on Mayavaram. Some of the temple info was taken from here.
I am trying to get some pics.... Will be put up once I unearth them !
1 comment:
There is something strikingly dichotomous about temples in mayavaram. There are the shiva temples and then, there are the kula deivam temples (ours for example, is in kottur). the latter have statues which differ significantly from deities in the shiva temples and my understanding is that they predate the shiva temples and represent tribal deities who were absorbed into the shaivite culture as it swept across the peninsula towards ceylon.
its always a beautiful feeling (for lack of a better word) -- to travel down the ages and wonder what the fellow who constructed this temple thought, about the many thousands of people who have come to worship in their sorrows and happiness, about prayers, demands, requests and negotiations that have been transacted in the premises, about kings and queens who would have no doubt travelled and wondered about the future, and hence us!
On another note, there is this place called valli malai on the way to vellore near chennai. a very interesting place this one. visit it and see if you can find the secret passage way in the main temple that was used as an escape route by kings, the temple built in karikala cholan's grandfather's memory (after a battle with the rashtrakutas (or pulikesin) and mentioned in one of kalki's famous novels), and a cave used by the jain monks who travelled down south along with some foot prints! there is another place (trek required) where there is an ashram. travel there and climb up a small hill to see the pond where legend has it that parvati bathed. you cannot miss the point that the small shelter is nothing but a vantage lookout point for royal soldiers to warn the king against invading armies (the structure of the hills would attest to that)!
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