Vadakumnadhan Temple

 Vadakunnathan temple ..Thrissur 

Once again Parasurama ,Vishnus 7th incarnate shines bright here .

When after getting kerala the land where his axe fell he distributed amongst the Nambudhiri families  .

He went to mount Kailas to pray to lord Shiva and requested him to come to kerala .

Its said Shiva and Parvathi , Ganesha and Subramanyan ,came upto Thrissur .

Suddenly they disappeared here and parasurama found a Shiva linga which he consecrated under a banyan tree .

The site of the moolastanam can be seen in the outer precinct of the temple even now .

Later the linga was shifted to a temple built by the  king of Cochin .

The temple was  constructed  around 800 y to 1000 years back as it was built by Perumthachan the divinely ordained carpenter ,who lived around 200 AD .

It was taken over by Calicuts king Zamorin between 1750 to 1762 .

Tipu sultan came here in 1789 though he destroyed many temples its said he left Vadakunnathan alone ,though he used its huge vessels to cook for his army and is said to have even offered a huge brass lamp when he left .

The temple is in top of a hillock in center of Thrissur city whose name comes from Thirusivaperoor the city of Lord Shiva .

The king of Cochin Shaktan thampuran who ruled from 1750 to 1805 drove away the Zamorin and took over the temple and town moving his headqaurters to Thrissur from Cochin .

He also started the famous Thrissur pooram as at that time the Peruvanam pooram was the most famous festival in kerala and once when the elephants from Thrissur reached late they were not allowed to be part of that years pooram !

Hence the king started it in Thrissur as a revenge and peruvanam pooram was over shadowed by Thrissur pooram slowly .

Strangely Vadakunathan temple is only a sort of judge in the great festival and it takes place in the vast grounds around the temple ,the Thekkinkaadu maidanam or teak forest .

The real festival is the competition between Paramekkaavu Bhagavathy temple and Thiruvambady Krishna temple in Thrissur under the benevolent gaze of Vadakunathan .

The Paramekaavu temple is opposite one gopuram of Vadakunathan temple while Thiruvambaady was a little inside 

Today the famous Swaraj circle encircles the Thekinkaad maidan and is the cwnter of Thrissur city itself .

The Thrissur pooram festival goes on for more than 24 hours with small processions of elephants with drummers merging  from smaller temples to Vadakunathan .

The paramekkaavu and Thiruvambady group after praying to vadukunathan occupy thier place in the maidan facing each other showing thier prowess in thier elephants ,decorations ,thier skills in the drum ensembles ,and as night sets in thier fireworks .

The Vadakunathan temple itself has four huge gopurams in each direction .

There is a huge Koothambalam inside the  temple reconstructed around early 19 th century by Velenezhy namboothiri as old one had broken down .

The koothambalam is a hall where temple dances like Nangiar koothu and Chakiyar koothu were held .

The inner sanctum has the Shiva linga one foot in height permanently covered in a mound of ghee and linga cannot be seen only the ghee given as offerings from devotees is seen .

Strangely the ghee never becomes bad and there is no foul smell .

Directly in the back of linga facing opposite side is Parvathy and both deities together represent Ardhanareeswara the personification of both genders .

There is a Sankara Narayana sanctum and one for Rama and Ganapathy in inner sanctum .

In the outer ring one finds Saastha the child of Shiva and Vishnu  ,Nandikeswara ,Gokulakrishna , and 

Shiva as Vettekorappan or as a hunter .

The temple has the magnificient koothambalam with a conical roof in outer ring .

There is a shrine for Adi Sankaracharya too .

Legend says Sankaras parents were childless for long and prayed for long in this temple .

Lord Shiva was pleased with thier penance and appeared before them and offered them a choice of either getting an intelligent great soul but who will die young or a child with all failings but who will live long .

Aryambha Sankaras mother agreed to have the intelligent child and thus Sankara was born with blessings of Vadakunathan himself .

The temple also has lovely murals mostly from Mahabharatha .

The temple was declared as a UNESCO Heritage site by Indian Archeology Dept in 2012 .

Mannarsaala Shethram

Mannarsaala Temple .

On the way to Trivandrum from Ernakulam after Allepey before Kayamkulam 3 km from  Haripad one reached the Mannarssala temple .

It was almost a km inside the NH .

Lord Parasurama the seventh avatar of Vishnu is said to have created Kerala from the sea after he was advised by devas to propitiate by giving land to Brahmins for having committed the sin of killing kshatriyas in anger many times over .

He prays to Lord Varuna who gives him an axe or mazhu to throw into the Arabian sea  and to use the area covered by the axe which would turn into land .

Parasurama does that and mythology states that was kerala .

In the story of the temple after getting the land Parasurama realises it coming from sea is full of salinity and nothing would grow there so no brahmin was keen on staying in that land .

So Parasurama goes into penance again to lord Shiva who appears after long asks him to pray to serpent king Nagaraja to allow the poison from serpents to cleanse the land of ots saltiness .

Parasurama prays for long and Nagaraja who is a melding of Trimurtis appears before him in resplendent glory agrees to send serpents to purify the land making it green fertile and beautiful .

He also says he the Nagaraja himself would have his presence here forever .

After Parasurama entrusted the village and temple to Nagaraja to a brahmin family teaching them the rites and rituals needed .

Many years pass and in the family comes a couple who are sad as they have no children .

Vasuki and Narayanan .

There is a fire in the forest which burns many snakes resident in forest around the temple .

The couple tend to thier wounds using honey ghee other cooling ungents give them medicines and nourishing food with milk puffed rice plantains etc and heal them .

They also pray to Nagaraja who is pleased with them tells them he will be born as thier child and leave them after some time .

The temple still gives noorum paalum as prasad ie rice and milk as offering .

The couple have two children one a five hooded serpent Nagaraja and other a human child .

Both grow up together .

After becoming adults Nagaraja asks his brother to marry to continue the family as he would go into permanent meditation fpr the welfare of his subjects .

He asks his mother to do the poojas and rituals and after her time the eldest lady in family would do so .

This ritual still continues .

The woman priest is revered as Amma or mother and Nagaraja as Appoopan or grandfather who is inside a room in the temple .

This is an example of female superiority in kerala temples .

Most activists protesting on Sabarimalas age restriction in women know nothing of temples where prirority is given to women .

Many of the female activists are not aware how much importance keralas ancient society gave to women even in carrying on legacy and property of family in marumakathayam .

The same sacred family still runs the affairs of the temple as a trust based on documents and instructions of velliya amma or big mother .

Parasurama had adviced his subjects to nurture and care for forests and sacred groves not to harm serpents .

Uruli kamuthal or keeping bronze cooking  vessel upside down for childless couples will grace them with children .

Among the important functions is Mahasivarathri since the temple and family is associated with the Lord adorned with serpents .

Its said once Vasuki walked upto a tree a km away blowing all sand creating a pond caled karoli its said he repeats this walk every sivarathri to see his creation .

The second important function is the Ayilyam of Kanni which is the birthday of Nagaraja the Muthassan .

Every year the Maharaja of Travancore would unfailingly attend this function ,once he could come only in Thulam but made it up by creating a very grand festival celebrated still .

After this Aayilyam of Thulaam is celebrated .

On day next to Sivarathri the big mother opens the cellar to offer nurumpalum and on fifth day its given as prasadam to the family members .

On Sivarathri there is sarpabali and ezhunellathu .

For sarpabali family members grind rice for offering and this is on Sivarathri due to attachment the Mannarsaala family has to sarpabushana or one who carries serpents on him .

The Sarpam pattu is once in 42 years only .

It needs great preparation and manpower with seven virgin girls along with amma and veliya amma sing songs lasting for many days till the velliya amma gets into a trance and tells if Nagaraja is satisfied and also fortells future .

Many pictures posted here are from temple website .if objected can be removed

Rest pictures are mine

 

Bhadrinath

Bhadrinath ,Kedarnath ,Gangotri and Yamunotri are four important pilgrim centers for Hindus and are collectively called Char dham .

The pilgrim groups usually travel to Haridwar and Risikesh to get into the upper reaches of the Himalayas to reach these places .

Kedarnath  has no motorable road one needs to trekup 14km or take helicopter .

Bhadrinath has motorable road till the place but treacherous mountain roads proe to landslides .

Yamunotri where river yamuna origins is again not reached by road one has to trek a minimum of 7 to 8 km which in hills is quite cumbersome .

Gangotri origin of Ganga river has motorable road but when we went it had some block hence wehad to cancel visiting  it .

Though the real origin of Ganga is another 14 km of hard mountain trekking through a glacier a feat possible only by trained trekkers .

Most such pilgrimages are done before winter sets in .

Bhadrinath is situated in Garhwal himalayas in Uttarkhand and is a Vishnu temple and one of the 108 divya desams dedicated to Vishnu who is worshipped as Bhadrinath .

Its in Chamoli dt along banks of Alaknanda river above 3133 mts or 10279 ft ASL 

10000 feet above sea level its stark cold in october ,and after november no one stays here not a soul only snow and snow and mebbe army personell ,

Even Lord Kedarnath the deity is brought down to Ukkimath near Guptkashi ,

Legend says that pandavas of Mahabarath epic had made penance here to Lord Siva ,

Adhi Sankaracharya came here in the 8 th century and revived the temple ,he attained samadhi here at age of 32 .

Bhadrinath temple thus has a close Kerala connection 

 The great advaitic Adi Sankara from Kalady in Kerala swam in the fiery Alaknanda river to retrieve the idol in its bed and rebuilt the  Bhadrinath temple 

Idol made of black saligram is one feet in height .

The temple is mentioned in Divya Prabhanda in south India and Skanda purana and Vishnu purana too .

The temple deity is also called Nar Narayan as temple is between Nar parbhat and Narayan parbhat two mountain peaks .

The Tapt kund just below temple is a group of sulphorous hot ponds rich in minerals which pilgrims use for taking ritual bath though its boiling hot ,its mixed to make it less hot .

In the torrid cold its a welcome relief to take a bath though i did not attempt as removing the multiple layers of dress was cumbersome .

The deity is mentioned in Vedic scriptures from 1750 to 500 BC but no evidence of a temple .

There are hints of a Buddhist temple till 8 th century when Adhi Sankara retrieved idol and consecrated it in a cave near the hot springs appointed the local king as custodian who later built the temple .

The temples elevation is similar to a Buddhist Vihara and the brightly painted facade is also very particular to Buddhist temples .

Sankara is supposed to have stayed for 6 months in the place amd more than 5 years in Kedarnath 

He appointed Namboothiri priests from kerala to take care of Badrinath temple .

Even now the same family send thier chosen to do 

The chief priest today is an young man and given the honoroary title Rawalji  , hailing from South Kerala the handsome priest speaks chaste malayalam and also good hindi ,he is greatly respected by devotees from all over the country.

     The Rawal (chief priest) is selected by erstwhile rulers of Garhwal and Travancore. 

The Rawal has been accorded high holiness status by Garwhal Rifles and also the state governments of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. 

He is also held in high esteem by the Royals of Nepal. 

For six months in a year (during march to pre November), he performs his duties as a temple priest. 

Thereafter, he either stays in Joshimutt or goes back to his ancestral village in Kerala.

 The current Rawal is Shri V. Keshavan Namboothiri. (In 2012 when we went not now )

The duties of the Rawal starts at 4 A.M every day, with the Abhishekam. 

The Rawal should not cross the river till Vamana Dwadasi and must be a Brahmachari .

 Bhadrinath temple nestles high in Himalayas  11204 ft  24 km from Indochina border ,the town and temple is open only 6 months of the year the rest of time it is covered by snow ,only army men and some saints remain there during winter 

the whole town moves downhill !

the chief priest of Bhadrinath is traditionally a Kerala nampoothiri brahmin as planned by Adhisankara who is said to have retrieved the idol in the 9 th century from the Alaknanada river which later merges into the Ganges down below the Garhwal kings built the temple ,roads lead upto Bhadrinath unlike Kedarnath where one has to trek 14km uphill or take a heliride or on a pony ,the last town in India is just uphill bhadrinath with last post office last post box and last tea shop beyond is China !

Again i felt proud of our Army brothers and sisters who stay put in such hardy conditions for our sakes 

We visited Bhadrinath in 2011

On a hill near Bhadrinath is a cottage seen with red fiberglass roof high above in clouds .it has only a steep path to it .

We heard an old sayasi stays there throught year braving the elements ,he lived earlier in a thatched hut

Ambani dont know which built this for him

He was neither overjoyed nor sad he contd his meditation now in this !!