Samayapuram : Mariamman temple

place : Samayapuram

goddess : Maariamman

Sthala Vruksham: Neem Tree

How to reach?

Trichy is the nearest city with airport and railway station. Buses are frequently available from Trichy Chathiram bus stand. Bus from the city or call taxi will be the best way. Buses stop very near to temple.

About the temple

The temple has one shrine for very powerful Goddess mariamman. Goddess is also referred to as Magamayi and Samayapuratha. The place where the temple is built was named as Kannanur. The goddess is very famous and merciful towards devotees. Goddess has high curing powers and hence many small hand sized sculptures of body parts are bought from shops to put in temple Hundi. The idol of god is made from holy mud from putthu (anthills) found under neem tree and not made from metal or solid. No abhishegam (worshipping god with water) is done here for the moolasthanam idol(main idol in temple). Abhishegam is  performed for Utthsava moorthy. Uniquely, all round the year festivals are celebrated here, which will give the city a limelight of spiritual festive mood. There is a saying in Tamil "samayathil kaapal samayapurathaal" which means "Samayapuram maariamman will save devotees at the right time." The word "samayam" means "time". 

Poochoriyal (festival)

 Poochoriyal is celebrated from the month of March to April. Every week on Sunday, a big truck will start from different corners of the city and move around the town slowly. People will fill the truck with flowers. If the truck gets full, it will go to temple replaced by an empty truck. Devotees also bring flowers to temple. From sunrise to sunset, the flowers are rained on goddess beautifully. Devotees can witness the flowers raining on the goddess. Being a unique festival, very big gatherings of people will be present in the temple.

Temple website

click here to navigate to temple website.

History

When god took birth as Krishna to Vasudevar and Devaki and at the same time Maya devi took birth as girl baby to Yashodha and Nandhagopar, the babies were switched by Vasudevar and Nandhagopar with the grace of god. When Kamsan arrived at the prison of Devaki and Vasudevar, Maya Devi was there. Thinking this child is the "one", born to kill him, he raised the child in his hand but the child went up in the air and above him, she appeared as Maha maariamman. She laughed and told him, the child born to kill him is in another place and disappeared in air. She is believed to be Samayapuram Maha Maariamman. 

How she came to Samayapuram is a separate story. Samayapuram Mariamman was a deity in Srirangam temple in the name "Vaishnavi". She was not happy there and hence she was brought to Samayapuram, then the place was known as kannanur. Thick and dense trees were covering the place. People experienced very good changes once mariamman came to this place. People were able to travel in the forest without fear of robbery or any other obstacles. When it was known that samayapuram mariamman was the one protecting them, people started worshiping her. Vijayaranga Chokkanathar built a separate temple for the idol. 

 The idol for which Abhishegam takes place (Utsava moorthy) was worshipped by Kings of Vijayanagara. When their kingdom fell apart, the idol was bought here in a palanquin. When the palanquin bearers left the idol and went to have meal and came back, they could not lift back the palanquin. Hence she stayed here and the saying "Sainthal samayapuram, saathithaal kannapuram"!!!

Hope you enjoyed reading about the temple!!! Bye-bye!! See you all soon with another interesting post!!!

Uraiyur : Vekkaliamman temple

place : Uraiyur

goddess : Vekkaliamman

How to reach?

Trichy city has facility for both Railways and Airways. Buses are available from morning to evening frequently to Uraiyur. A little walk from bus stand by asking the directions, will be easier to go to the temple. Direction boards are available on the road. 

Temple website

click here to go to temple website

About the temple

Uraiyur was the capital to Chola Kingdom. Hence, the place is famous for centuries. The temple has only one main shrine for goddess vekkaliamman. There are shrines for Lord Ganesha, Kasi vishwanathar and Visalakshi, Karthikeya, Sani bhagawan, Utsava moorthy of Vekkaliamman. 

The temple has a gold chariot which comes in procession every single day at 7pm in the evening. Even though the temple is built with high ceiling, there is no roof directly above the shrine of goddess. This is a specialty of  the temple. The roof would get damaged every time it is built. Many a times people tried to build a roof very unsuccessfully. The temple is well organized for auspicious days when the number of visitors are high. Temple has a prasadam stall where traditional snacks and food are available. Free drinking water facility is also available near the entrance of the temple. The maintenance responsibility is with the TN government. People willing to make a specific wish should write their wish in a paper(provided by office) and tie it inside the temple. The temple office is available inside the temple to guide you. 

History

In every city in the olden days, a kaval deivam(Guardian angel) temple would also be built. Uraiyur Vekkaliamman temple is one such temple. The chola kings would pay visit to the temple before wars or any important work to seek the blessing of the goddess. 

Sand rain

Once a sadhu lived near malaikottai thayumaswamy temple. He is known as Sarama munivar. He loved to worship lord Shiva with flower garlands. For specially worshipping the god, he bought flower seeds of sevvandhi from deva logam and grew the flower plants. Every single day he would adorn Thayumanaswamy with a garland having this sevvanthi poo. A flower businessman wanted to get closer to king. He secretly took the flowers sarama munivar grew specially for thayuaswamy to please the king. The king even after knowing that, the flowers came from sarama munivar's garden and also grown specifically for the god, ordered the theif to bring it to him everyday. Sarama munivar started noticing that the number of flowers are growing very less everyday. One day, the munivar decided to hide in the garden. As expected the flower business man came to steal the flowers. The munivar caught him red handed and took him to the king. The king, who should give justice, behaved indifferently towards Sarama munivar. Being a sadhu, Sarama munivar went to none other than Thayumanaswamy and told the full episode. Seeing the sadness in Sadhu caused by the king and flower businessman, god, who has been facing east until then, turned towards west. As soon as he turned, Sand rain started in the city. Unable to bear the sand rain, whoever had life ran to Uraiyur Vekkaliamman temple, considering her as the guardian angel. As the people cried to her, Goddess pacified Thayumanaswamy. The sand rain stopped but the city and houses were buried 20 feet below the sand. The people became sad and took sky for their roof. Being a mother, Vekkaliamman decided to not have a roof until everyone gets a home. Atleast a few people sleep in the open and true to her word, even today the goddess adopted sky for her roof. That is the reason passed to generations, as to why there is no roof above the shrine of the goddess.

Hope you want to come to woraiyur after reading this!!

See you all soon in another temple!!!

Siruvachur : Madura Kali Amman temple

place : Siruvachur
Goddess : Mathura Kali amman
Goddess : Chelliamman


How to reach?
Siruvachur is situated in Trichy-Chennai highway. Any government or private bus will stop in Siruvachur if requested. Autos are available to go to temple from Highway. Temple is 2-3kms from main road. Shops are open near temple for Archana and for worshipping with flowers and garlands made from lemons and flowers.

note
The temple is open only for two days in a week, Monday and Friday from morning to night, closing for performing Pooja. Temple is open on special days like nine days of Navarathri, full moon day and new moon day.

About the temple
The temple is believed to be at least thousand years old. The goddess here is very powerful. The temple has one shrine for mathurakali amman. The goddess can be worshipped by doing archana, or preparing maa vilakku maavu, or with flower garlands or lemon garlands. The archana plate should have beetel leaves, nuts, lemon and any other items. Incense stick should be lighted outside shrine. Since the crowd is big, Coconut is also broken in equal half outside before offering it to god. It is believed that Chelliamman resides in the hill right beside the temple. There is a mutt right behind the temple. Marriage and any other function hall is available there. Rooms are also available there.

History
Once a very chaste woman named Kannagi lived in the outskirts of Madurai with her husband, Kovalan. She was very chaste in duties and sincerity towards Kovalan. They had little wealth and to make the ends meet, Kannagi suggested to sell the anklet. Kovalan agreed and went to sell the anklet to smith-worker. The smith-worker misinterpreted the anklet to b the stolen anklet of Queen. The king heard about the anklet and beheaded Kovalan without a fair trial. Kannagi on hearing the tragedy, went to King's court. There she questioned king, "which stone is queens anklet contains?". The king answered that "it is made of pearls". Kannangi was angered by this and told the king "The anklets my husband took with him contained maanikkam and its pair is here". Kannagi broke her anklet and Manikkam, a very rare stone, came out of it. Queens pair was bought and broken. One contained pearl and the other contained Maanikkam, proving that Kovalan was killed unfairly. King died on that spot after knowing he had done injustice in this case. Kannagi's sorrow and anger knew no bounds and she cursed there that Madurai should burn. The city started burning at that instant and Kannagi left the place that had inflicted injustice. Kannagi came to Siruvachur. There she saw that Chelliamman was frightened and scared by a Magician, whose intention is to cause havoc. Unable to tolerate the magician, Kannagi pushed the magician in the fire-pit and stomped her leg on him and killed him. Chelliamman and people there rejoiced and from these incidents she is known as Madurakali-amman. Chelliamman gave her place in temple to Madurakali amman and now is in hill near the temple. During the aarati ceremony, the priests worship Madurakali amman and raise the aarati plate signifying aarati to chelliamman from temple. There is a pit in the direct site of goddess signifying the pit where the evil Magician was burnt. Priests tie a dhothi or towel arround the face covering the mouth and hair while performing aarati.

official temple website
Click here to navigate to official website of the temple.


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Ootathur : Sutha Rathineswarar Akilandeswari temple

Place : Ootathur
God : SuthaRathineswarar
Goddess : Akilandeswari

How to reach?
Ootathur is a village in Tamil Nadu state. Nearest City is Trichy (For Airways) and nearest town is Perambalur (To travel by bus).
Call taxi or car could be the best way to travel. Trees are well planted in the roads and hence travel to temple from the service road will be very scenic.
Any government bus going in this highway(Trichy - Chennai) will stop here. There is a bus stand at the highway - Ootathur road junction.

About the Temple
Ootrathur village is named after the Ootru (Natural Spring) within the Shiva temple. There is a small kulam (lake) named Brahma theertham(Holy water) right in front of SuthaRathineswarar Shrine. Shrine of Goddess Akilandeswari is separately built on the right side of temple. The temple is quite big and centuries old. Chola Kings Raja Raja Chola and Rajendra Chola have expanded and built the temple. Unique feature of the temple is that you have to walk down the stairs from the main entrance to get inside the temple. Many sculptures like fish, snake and other sea creatures can be seen on the path inside temple entrance.

 

People suffering from kidney ailments offer garlands made of khus to gods Natarajar and Sivagama Sundari in the temple, make archana to gods and take theertham from Brahma theertham. This theertham should be taken in small equal quantities for a period of time. A drop or two of honey should be added to a small quantity of the water in the evening and it should be kept closed overnight. It should be taken first next morning.

There are two Nandi in the shrine of Shiva: One facing Shiva and one facing east looking through an opening in the wall near the Artha mandapam entrance. This Nandi facing east is called Nandiyaaru Nandi.


History of the Temple
Once the temple was flooded with water and devotees were not able to enter it. Lord Sudha Rathineswarar asked Nandiyaaru Nandi to drink all the water and Nandiyaaru Nandi immediately turned towards east and drank all the water. The devotees then happily and safely started visiting the temple again.

How the temple was built?
The place, where temple stands today was a land where lots of grass were grown. The horse care takers came to this place to cut the grass. At one place(The shrine of SuthaRathineswarar) when the blade went inside land to cut grass, it struck the Lingam(meditative form of Lord Shiva) inside land. When the grass cutting tool was pulled out, lots of blood rushed out. Alarmed by the event, King was informed and he came to the place. The area was dug and the Shiva Lingam, covered in blood, was discovered. Shrine was built around the Lingam. The Shiva Lingam was red in color and hence the name "Sutha Rathineswarar", which means pure gem. The cut made on top of Lingam could still be felt or seen and makes this temple a must on the Pilgrim list.

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