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!