Sringeri : Sri Sharadhambal temple

place : Sringeri
goddess : Saradhambal

How to reach?

Mangalore airport is the nearest airport. Railway station is there both in Mangalore and Bangalore. Buses(sleeper, AC, non AC,etc) to Sringeri is frequent throughout the day from Mangalore. From Bangalore night sleeper bus is the best option because the buses go through lots of diversion and takes lot of time. Cab can also be hired from both the places. Bangalore has the facility for hiring cars for yourself to drive. The road from Mangalore to Sringeri is very scenic and densely green. The place gets very cool after short distance. Remember to carry an umbrella as it may rain any time in this mountainous region. Also carry a torch light, mosquito mats and extra blanket. 

The best place to stay in Sringeri is the Devasthanam rooms. The office is directly opposite to the entrance of temple. A very remarkable building. The rooms are spacious. The water supply is also good. Annadhanam (Free food) is served in temple to devotees.

About the Temple

The temple offers a very peaceful and happy atmosphere. The main goddess of the temple is Sharadhambal, a form of Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge. People bring their little children to temple and initiate first lines of study here. The temple is ideal for meditating and so are the gardens and its surroundings. The temple lies on one side of river Tunga. On the other side is the mutt. A bridge connects both the ends. The mutt was established by Adhi Sankarar, who also established four other main mutts at Puri, Badhrinath, Dwarka and kanchipuram.

Sringeri is very famous for the marvellous architecture of Vidhyashankar temple, right beside the main Sharadhambal temple. The temple’s construction is so marvellous that the temple is one of the heritage sites in India.

Vidhyashankar temple

  

Tunga river view from bridge

Adi Shankara shrine

Vidhyashankar temple

Bridge over river Tunga, connecting the temple and the mutt

History
Once sage Duruvasa went to Sathyalokha to worship Goddess Saraswati and Brahma. The recited sloka to please the gods. As he was reciting, he made a small mistake, which goddess saraswati noticed and very small smile flowered in her face. Enraged by the smile, Duruvasa cursed Saraswati that she would be born in Bhulokha and would be married to Brahma, who in turn will get sanyasa. God could have easily refused the curse but to lay a strong foundation of dharma in the world, Saraswati decides to take birth as Ubhaya Bharathi in a brahmin family. She is married to Mandana Misrar, a vedic scholar. Adi shankara visits Mandana misrar's house, after hearing about his vedic knowledge and disciplined life. The day Adi shankarar visits happens to be the shraddha day of Mandana misrar's parent. Seeing the great ascetic, Mandana misrar tells he has to perform ceremony at his house, for which Adi shankarar respond. Seeing the intellect of Adi shankara, the guests urge Mandana mishrar to invite him for the Vishnu bhojan. Adi sankarar politely refuses saying he is hungry for a verbal competition with the scholar. Satisfied with the request, Mandana mishrar agrees and sets the day for argument. Adi sankarar seeing Ubhaya Bharathi's high intellect and requests her to be the judge. On the day of the competition, Ubhaya Bharathi gives flower garlands to both Adi sankarar and Mandana mishrar. She sets the condition that whose flower garland fades first would be runner and the other would be winner. Mandana mishrar seeing the ascetic put a condition that if Adi sankarar loses, he have to marry and lead a life with family. Adi sankarar agrees with the condition that if he wins, Mandana mishrar should get sanyasa and become his disciple. The strong verbal arguement began. In between the arguement, Mandana misrar realise that Adi sankarar has no knowledge of kama and challenges him. Seeing the situation, Adi sankarar requests Ubhaya bharathi to give him some time to research on the topic. Ubhaya bharati agrees after seeing that it would be unjustifiable to not give adi sankarar the permission. Adi Sankarar takes his three disciples and goes to a safe place. After instructing his disciples, his soul leaves his body and enters the body of the king, who had passed away on that day. The disciples guard Adi sankarar's body not allowing anyone near the place. The queen notices the change in king's attittude and intellect. It took her little time to realize that Adi sankarar is in king's body. Queen is intrigued by the questions from the king about kama and learns about the debate taking place in Mandana mishrar's household. Seeing the happiness among the people and wanting to preserve it, queen orders few servants to find and burn Adi sankarar's body. Adi sankarar learns about the queen's plan immediately and realizes it is time to go back to his own shell. As queen's plan was about to take place, Adi sankarar enters into his own body and leaves the safe place along with his disciples. He comes back and the arguement continues. Mandana misrar's garland began to fade and he accepted his defeat and accepts sanyasam. Adi Sankara has never before went in search of a disciple. He was the first and He was given the title Sureshwaracharya. Ubhaya bharathi realize that it is lord shiva, who has come in the form of Adi sankarar. She requests to leave from bhulokha but Adi sankarar pursue her to come along with him to establish his matt. Ubhaya bharathi agrees. When they reach Sringeri, they witness a beautiful scene where a big snake protects a frog, which about to give birth to its offspring, from rain. Seeing that the greatest enemies are living in harmony, Sankarar is mesmerized. He requests ubhaya bharathi (saraswathi mata) to stay there as sharadhambal. Gladly, Ubhaya bharathi stays in Sringeri as Sharadhambal. Adi sankarar establishes a mutt in Sringeri and leaves Suresvaracharaya as the Guru of the mutt.

Adi Shankarar once visited kailash, abode of lord Shiva. When he visited, Lord shiva presented him 5 Shiva lingas. The five lingas are present even today. One of them is at Sringeri mutt. The devotees can see Shankaracharya guru performing pooja to the lingam in the evening time. This pooja is called Chandramouleeswara pooja. 

Tirunelveli : Gandhimathi Nellaiappar temple

place : Tirunelveli
goddess : Gandhimathi
god : Nelliappar

How to Reach?
Tirunelveli town is connected by buses and trains. The nearest airport is thoothukudi airport and it is 40-50km away from the city. Nearest International airport is Coimbatore airport. The city is surrounded by lots of sight seeing places. If you are planning to visit Tirunelveli, staying at the place for 5 days would be a good option.

About the temple
The temple is magnificent. It is a very big temple with many architecture details. The most important architecture detail is The musical pillars. The main god is Nellaiappar and the main goddess is Gandhimathi. The temple is open from morning to noon and again from evening to night.

temple corridor on the way to goddess shrine

Sangili mandapam connecting both the temples

Pillars produce musical sound pitches

Govindaraja perumal shrine near  nellaiappar. Govindaraja perumal came to this temple to initiate the divine marrige for Shiva and Parvati

Lord Dhakshinamoorthy shrine opposite to the entrance of Gandhimadhi ambal temple

History
Once upon a time, bamboo trees were grown in the place, the temple is built in. Everyday a milk man would pass through this way and everyday one of the milk cans will be hit by one bamboo tree. The King questioned the milk man about the reduced quantity of milk. The milk man revealed that one of the bamboo trees will hit one of his milk cans. Hearing this, the king ordered the bamboo tree to be cut down. So, people went there to cut it. On cutting it, blood burst out from the bamboo tree.  Realizing that The bamboo tree is not any other ordinary tree, king started to build a temple. The temple is built by Pandian kings for three generations. Since the god appeared in the form of bamboo forest, he was known as Venu vana nathar. Initially Gandhimathi amman temple was separate from Nelliappar swamy temple. The sangili mandapam was built to connect both the temples.

Sthala vriksham, Bamboo tree

Corridor to Thamira sabhai

Thamira sabhai

After the temple was buillt, people worshipped the god. As a part of worship, food is offered to god. One pandithar would cook the food specially. The pandithar would soak and wash the grains. After washing the grains, he would spread the grains under the sun for drying. later he would separate rice from its skin(நெல்). Then the rice will be cooked and used for worshiping god. One day, the pandithar lay the grains under the sun for drying and went to river Tamirabarani for bathing. At the time, rain started pouring. Realizing that grains were laid outside, the pandithar ran back to save the grains from getting wet. If the grains got wet, then preparing food for worshiping would not happen that day. When the pandithar got back to the grains laid down on the ground under the sun, he was surprised to the core when none of the grain was wet but the area surrounding the grains was wet. From then on the city is known as Thirunelveli and the god as Nellaiappar.

Tiruvanaikaval : Akilandeswari Jambukeswarar Temple

place : Tiruvanaikaa

goddess : Akilandeswari

god : Jambukeswarar

sthala vruksham: Vennaval (White Jambu fruit tree)

How to reach?

Tiruvanaikaa is a small village in Trichy. Trichy or Tiruchirapalli junction is connected to many cities via railways and airways. Buses, auto and taxi is available from morning to night. Hotels and Lodges for staying are available at some distance. Some places to stay are:

1.     Yathri Nivas

2.     Hayagrivas

3.     Vamana Towers

4.     Nivedham

About the Temple

The Tiruvanaikaa temple is one of the Pancha bootha sthalams. Of the pancha boothams (fire, earth, sky, water, air) tiruvanaikaa is for Jalam (water). The temple is very unique in many perspectives. There are five praharams in the temple. Here Goddess and god shrine are facing opposite directions(east and west). Lord Shiva is Guru to Goddess Parvati here and thus, marriage function for god and goddess is not observed here but there is a shrine for Kalyana Sundaramoorthy in the first praharam. People come to this temple to pray for getting married or re-unite with their spouse.

Temple elephant

The sanctum sanctorum of Lord Jambukeswarar is under the sthala Vriksham. The Uchchi kala pooja is very significant in this temple. Goddess will perform pooja to God and cow. Temple pandits, dressed in madisar, will perform this ritual. Temple is managed by government and is open full time on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays to help people have dharshan without getting crowded. The temple will be crowded on all auspicious days. Festivals celebrated here are:

Aadi Pooram

Pancha Praharam

Shiva Raathri

Theppam

Vasanthothsavam

Navarathri

History of the Temple

Histories would be the right word here. Lord here is such that, many incidents has become History that makes people surprised. Let us see all the histories associated with this temple.

Elephant and the Spider

An elephant and spider worshipped the lord here. The elephant would come in the morning, bathe the lord with fresh water and worship. Spider will come later in mid-day and make web to provide god with shelter. Every morning, elephant would look at the web and clean it and everyday, the spider would spin web tirelessly. To know who spins web, elephant decides to look for the source and on the same day, spider wanted to know who destroys the shelter it has created for god. A big fight break out between the elephant and spider. Spider decides and enters elephant's trunk. Spider being venomous, stings the elephant and elephant squeeze its trunk bringing death to both. Since the spider showed the tendency to poison and kill, it did not attain moksha. Elephant attains moksha. The spider from the benefit of worshiping lord everyday, takes birth as a red eyed king. He is born red eyed because few hours before labour, an astrologer informs the mother after looking at the positions of celestial bodies that if the baby's birth is little delayed, it will become a ruler. So the to-be mother in labour hangs herself upside down. The baby born at the perfect time becomes the king named Kochengannan meaning red eyed king. He is the king, who built this temple. From the effect of previous birth, he built the shrine for Lord Jambukeswarar such that no elephant could enter inside. The temple is known as Thiru Aanai Kaa meaning "The place where elephant is protected". With time, the pronunciation changed to Thiruvanaika.

Jalagandeswarar

Goddess Parvathi appeared here as Akilandeswari. Everyday goddess worshipped Lord Shiva by going to river and carving a lingam out of water. Pleased with her worship, Lord Shiva appeared as Jalagandeswarar and bless Akilandeswari. Goddess gets upanyasam(lessons) from The Lord. So, lord Jalagandeswarar is guru(teacher) and Goddess Akilandeswari is student. There is no marriage festival organised in the temple because of this reason. However, people who seek to get married soon, worship the goddess by offering a very long Garland called nila maalai(நில மாலை). 

AadhiSankarar

The famous saint Aadhi Sankarar visited the temple. At the time he visited, goddess Akilandeswari brimmed with so much power that no one could enter the temple easily. Seeing the situation, saint Aadhi Sankarar made a pair of earrings. He adorned the goddess with the earrings and after that people worshipped the goddess with ease.

Jambukeswarar

One Devotee worshipped Lord Shiva(Jalagandeswarar). One day he offered white jambu fruit to lord Shiva. After eating the fruit, lord Shiva gave its seed to the saint. Considering the seed as a prasadham (food offered to god), he swallows it. A white jambu tree grows from inside the saint and comes out from his head. Unable to bear this, he pleadingly looks at Shiva. Lord Shiva console him by saying, he would be under this tree and from then would be called Jambukeswarar. The saint known as jambu munivar is satisfied by this and attains moksham(salvation).

Vibhoothi Siddhar

When the temple's four praharam construction was completed, the king wanted to build the fifth praharam(A path around the temple). For this, construction of the big fort had to be done. The king was facing war threats from a nearby kingdom and did not announce his plan. The king went to sleep worried about the plan. In his dream, lord Shiva asks him to work on his plan and he would be helped by lord Shiva himself. The construction of the fort commences and when it is over, a saint named Vibhoothi Siddhar appears and gives Vibhoothi (sacred ash) to all construction workers. All the workers worried with their pay, take it to their house and keeps it. The next day, all the ashes turned into gold.  It not only turned into gold but also turned proportionately to each workers work. The fort is known as "Thiruneetran Thirumadhil". The Vibhhoothi Siddhar's Jeeva-Samadhi is in fourth praharam.

Kalamega pulavar

Long time ago, there was a severe friendship issues between Shiva Bhakthas and Vishnu Bhakthas. At that time, a severe flood came. All the people left their house and took shelter in the temple. Few Vishnu bhakthas were also in the Shiva temple. Few people gathered and cooked for people in the temple. Only few people could cook at the time. One of the Vishnu Bhakthas, offered to cook food. Seeing this, Vishnu Bhakthas made him promise that he would only be serving in Shiva temple. The person agreed and he started his service happily. The flood receded and people started going back to their lives. The cook, who couldn't go back from his promise, stayed in Shiva temple. One night when he was sleeping, goddess appeared in the form of Saraswathi, the goddess of arts. Seeing him sleeping with his mouth open, she spit the betel leaf in his mouth. The moment the cook was awake, he started singing poems and became a poet known as "kalamega pulavar".

Mazhu endhiya Pandithar

In total there are nine theerthams in the temple(Sreemath Theertham, Rama Theertham, Chandra Theertham, Agni Theertham, Indira Theertham, Akasthiya Theertham, Jambu Theertham, Surya Theertham, Brahmma Theertham). Out of this, Rama theertham has a unique story of how it came to be a part of the temple. Rama theertham is near to both Srirangam temple and Tiruvanaikaa temple. So the Pandits of both the temples claimed the theertham for their own temple. To finalise, Pandits of srirangam temple lays out a challenge. If the Pandit of Thiruvanaikaa temple wins it, the theertham will belong to Thiruvanaikaa temple else, it will belong to Srirangam temple but the challenge the Pandits of Srirangam lays is that the pandit of Thiruvanaikaa temple should carry a mazhu(a small instrument in lord Shiva's hand) out of fire, red hot, in bare hands to the temple. Hearing this, the Pandit of Thiruvanaikaa temple comes to goddess Akilandeswari and cries to her. The Goddess consoles him and tells him to accept the challenge. The pandit goes back and agrees to the challenge. The day of challenge comes and everyone are gathered. The mazhu is heated until it is red hot. It is handed to the Pandit. The worried Pandit takes it in hand. To his and everyone's surprise, the Pandit holds the mazhu with ease. The Pandit brings it to Thiruvanaikaa temple. As agreed, Srirangam Pandits agrees that Rama theertham belongs to Thiruvanaikka temple.

That's all folks. Hope you all enjoyed reading about Thiruvanaikaa!!! See you all soon with a new temple!