WHERETO WE MARCHED ON THE 1ST MARCH '09

3 Amman temples + Devadhanam temple visists in our ONE DAY TOUR - 01/03/09 0600- 2200HRS

On Sunday the 1st March 2009 our AALAYA DHARSHAN group of 15 members – (as usual, the age range being between 51 and 80) performed this Tour on a comfortable 16 seater Tourister driven by a very young and most cooperative Venkatesan as the chariot. The total distance covered as per reading was 293km, did we???

0630-0730hrs - We visited the 650 year old Santhana Srinivasan temple at Mugappair, and were the first batch of devotees immediately after the priests chanted the Pallandu and other pasurams. The 9.5 ft idol is a replica of Lord Balajee at Thirumala Hills but is taller than him. Because of His fulfilling the wishes of parenthood to many childless couple, the whole village was named MAGAPPERU (santhanabagyam) which Time has distorted to the present name Mugappair.

This temple is almost at the end of the Mugappair road in a small street jutting out of the main road. We finished our breakfast at the mandapam itself here which is spacious with water taps and has adjoining toilet facilities.

0830-0900 hrs. Ayappakkam Dhakshinamurthi (16’ ft tall) temple - is a Guru sthalam and the idol is on the first floor of the temple. The approach roads are very bad and one has to proceed very slowly to avoid disc problems of the devotees. We lost 2 valuable hours because of the bad road condition and as a result compelled to deny ourselves, our program to visit the Vaishnavi temple at Thirumullaivayil.

0915 – 0930 hrs – The Masilamaniswarar temple at Thirumullaivayil houses the sannidhi of Kodiyidai Amman. There is a belief that the same sculptor had made the other two Ammans, viz., Thiruvudai Amman at Melur, and Vadivudai Amman at Thiruvottiyur. When we stood before Her Paalabhishekam was performed and the beautiful Amman idol is a feast to the eye. Masilamaniswar’s Nandhi is facing opposite direction unusually and this is explained by folklore that Nandikeswarar was busily engaged in fighting and warding off the Asuras and evil elements trying to attack Him and the village This is a very old temple

1015-1030 hrs. - The second Amman to visit, viz, Thiruvudai Amman is at Melur, off Minjur. The temple is located in a narrow road off the Melur main road with a prominent arch with the temple name. It is safer therefore to seek local help from time to time to avoid delay in reaching the temple.

1200-1230 hrs - Before the temple doors are shut we rushed to Thiruvotriyur which is quite far away from Melur, on the eastern seacoast. The temple is on the busy Tiruvotriyur High Road requiring patience in manouevring through the confusing traffic and indisciplined road users. Vadivudaiyamman is yet another beautiful idol magnetizing the devotees with Her benevolence. Being a Sunday and situated in a big town, the crowd here made us wait for almost an hour. We could not have darshan of Thyagaraja and the huge Dhakshinamurthy in this vast and ancient temple

We proceeded to Ponneri despite the heat picking up earlier this summer, even in early March, cooling ourselves with cold Lassi enroute. Ponneri Devadhanam temple is quite remote to have access. On the Ponneri road, one has to take diversion towards Vellakulam railway gate, cross it and ask for Devadhanam. At the fag end of the village cart road, through serpentine coils, with paddy fields on either side of the road, we reached the village by about 1430hrs and selected the house of a goodhearted villager named Dhayala Naidu, who has acres of land planted with rich teak, palm and coconut trees besides sugarcrane and kitchengarden. Naturally therefore his products are exploited by a group of monkeys, dogs and a cock family having no food problem. Dayalanaidu is one person living upto his name by his deeds. He and all members of his family were very courteous and offered us all the comforts. The sweet well water was refreshing and cool as if from a refrigerator. With great reluctance we rose up from this temporary heaven, at about 1545hrs to proceed to Devadhanam temple which was open from 1600 hrs.

1600-1700 hrs – Vada Thiruvarangam – Devadhanam Ranganathar temple. The temple is a gift from the Devas, was built by early Chalukyas. Sri Ranganathar’s idol is made of salagramam, 18 ft long, 5 foot high, in Bhoga sayana thirukolam with Sridevi Bhoodevi, Brahma, Naradha and Thumburu in attendance. Resting His head on “wooden-measuring equipment” (marakkal padi) His smiling lips tempt the ardent devotee to embrace Him.

This “ullam kavar kalvan” gives Seva just a foot away from the visiting devotee. There is no abishekam for Him and is annually given “thaila kappu”. Garudazhwar with his wings spreadout is 4ft tall in front of the sannidhi.

1930-2000 hrs - The long journey towards Narasinghapuram from Ponneri is through Minjur, Thiruvallur Thirupachur, Kadambathur, Perambakkam and through the winding narrow streets of Narasinghapuram leading to the ancient 2000 year old smiling santha Lakshmi-Narasimhar both mutually embracing each other. This temple belongs to early Chola period. An excellent dharshan we had just prior to closing hours thanks to Mr Nandagopal, the trustee of the temple who put in a word to the bhattachariyar there to await us. Without the cooperation of young Venkatesan, our driver we would not have made it.

There is a miracle reported about the dwajasthambam of this temple For erecting the Dwaja Sthambam (Flag Staff) of the Temple (as the original was found missing) a 53 feet tall wooden piece from the Amazon forests of South America was located thanks to a miraculous dream that a devotee had of a ship sailing with logs of wood. On enquiry it was found that a ship laden with logs of wood from the Amazon had just docked in Chennai Port. An Industrialist of Chennai Sri Navaneetha Krishnan bought a 53 Feet long wooden log and offered it to the Temple.One peculiarity about this tour is we just covered only 6 temples traveling about 293 km