Vaikom Sree Mahadeva shetram is in Kottayam district .
One of the oldest temples in Kerala its lingas are said to exist since Tretha yuga .
It has lot of stories and legends of origin and period of worship to fit in here .
Its described in Bhargava purana and Sanal kumara Samhita as Vaiyagrha puram or Vayahreha geham .
As its lingas was found and worshiped by Vaiyagrapada maharsi it was called Vaiyagrahapadapuram and later with time as Vaikom .
The association with Etumanoor and Kaduthuruthy temples also of lord Shiva is remarkable and being equidistant from each other its said its 3 lingas which were consecrated at same time and its good to visit all 3 by afternoon .
We went to Vaikom temple only today as allowed respecting Covid protocols .
Its a huge temple with mammoth structures supposed to be consecrated by Lord Parsurama himself at the very spot where one of the three lingas given to Khara an asura by lord Shiva for his devotion .
Khara carried one in right hand one in left and third around neck .
In this area the idols fell and could not be removed from the spot
Khara knew it had to be left there so he requested a holy man Vyaghrapada to continue doing puja to the lingas
He attained moksha too
Later Lord parasurama consecrated the three temples
He gave it to Brahmin families to manage them
Later Vaikom had 108 families to do this and they were divided as half into two factions .
One faction morally had upper hand and were more sincere and was with the king .
The leader of the other faction Njallal nampoothiri fought with them .
Nampoothiri spat on the nivedhiya or Gods offering to offend the rival faction .
Immediately a poisonous snake bit him he dropped in the ground crawled out through western door to die .
The door they say shut automatically with angry voice emanating from temple never to open it again
The Etumanoor and Kaduthuruthy temples are other two spots of the dropped lingas .
Vaikom temple is vast with huge grounds arounf 8 acres and being empty looks bigger .
The lord in Vaikom is worshipped in 3 forms daily Dakshinamoorthy in morning
Kiradha moorthy by noon and Dhatipanchakshari by dusk .
Its inner sanctum sanctorum is actually elleptical but looks circular .
Only a skilled craftsman can do that .
Its supposed to be none other than the famed Perumthachan himself who was its chief architect and creator .
The Sreekoil walls are decorated by kerala temple art and an ornamental lamp in the back .
The linga itself is 6 feet in height .
To see the deity one needs to climb six steps symbolic of shad vikaras or six emotions like kama ,krodha,'lobha,moha,madha mathsarya or thanthrik chakras as per thanthrik kalpanas .
The Mooladhana chakram,Swadhistana chakram ,Manipurakha chakram ,Anahsta chakram ,Visudhi and Jnana chakram .
On eastern side is the Manya sthana or big kitchen where Vilvamangala swamigal was supposed tp have seen lord Shiva as a brahmin eating Prathal or nivedhiya
Today its the famous annadhaana to all
The usually crowded temple was literally empty
We were allowed inside with covid protocol .
As crowds less we could pray well .
The roads around the temple too have lot of history in them .
Kerala was once called as pranthalayam or mad house by Swami Vivekananda when he visited it and felt disgusted with the caste discriminations and untouchability prevalent then .
Vaikom temple and roads around were prohibited for the lower castes .
It was in those roads that leaders and Gurus like Sree Narayana Guru ,Mannathu Padmanabhan ,Dr Palpu inspired youngsters to protest against caste discrimination in famous Vsikam satyagraha along with our freedom struggle .
Mahatma Gandhi too requested Maharani Sethu Laksmi bayi too remove the restrictions ,though she started the changes it was after the young Maharaja came to throne the famous temple declaration came to be a law allowing all Hindus regardless of castes into temples by his authority which as a regent the maharani did not have powers to do so .
Vaikatthu Astami is a very famous 10 day festival of this temple .
The drive too was pleasant but for a road block caused by an overturned lorry lying on its side after hitting an electric pole and breaking it .
By the time we returned the lorry was back on road straight though traffic was blocked still .
No comments:
Post a Comment