Spiritual East of Tamil Nadu

The eastern coast of Tamil Nadu is dotted with a number of spiritual sites representing various religions.  This post reviews a few of these sites.

The first stop over in my trip was Chidambaram.  Chidambaram is a city located on the Chennai-Cuddalore-Karaikal highway.  There are frequent buses connecting Chennai to Chidambaram.  Trains also connect the two places.  I had booked on the Cholan express that left Chennai at 8:20 AM and reached Chidambaram by 1:50 PM.  Chidambaram is known the world over for the Nataraja temple - which is one of the Pancha Bhoota Sthalas of Lord Shiva representing space.  Chidambaram is also associated with the legends describing the Cosmic Dance of Lord Shiva and the dance duel between Lord Shiva and Goddess Kaali.

The temple opens in the evening for public by only 4PM. So I decided to have lunch and then found a place to take rest till the evening.  There are a number of boarding facilities on the East Side of the temple.  I presume there must be similar facilities on the other sides as well.  The door of the outer prakaram of the temple opened at 4 PM sharp to allow the queue of devotees lined up to see the temple.  

        

The temple has five prakarams and all the prakarams except the innermost one are open to sky.  The innermost prakaram houses the sanctum sanctorum.  The place where the temple is located is the center point of the world's magnetic equator.  Three of the five Panchaboothasthala temples, those at Kalahasti, Kanchipuram and Chidambaram all stand on a straight line exactly at 79 degree 41 minutesEast longitude - truly an engineering, astrological and geographical wonder. Of the other two temples, Tiruvanaikkaval is located at around 3 degrees to the south and exactly 1 degree to the west of the northern tip of this divine axis, while Tiruvannamalai is around midway (1.5 degree to the south and 0.5 degree to the west).The 9 gateways signify the 9 orifices in the human body.

        

The deity that presides here is Thillai Nataraja. Chidambaram is the birthplace of the sculpture and bronze image representation of Shiva as the cosmic dancer, a Tamilian concept and motif in Chola art that has since become notable as a symbol of Hinduism. The shrine is the only Shiva temple to have its main deity represented in this anthropomorphic form, as the supreme being who performs all cosmic activities.

Two other forms of Shiva are represented close to this in the vimana (inner sanctum) of the temple - as a crystallised lingam - the most common representation of Shiva in temples, and as the aether space classical element, represented with empty space and a garland of fifty one hanging golden vilvam leaves. Shiva is captured in pose as Nataraja performing the Ananda Tandava ("Dance of Delight") in the golden hall of the shrine Pon Ambalam. The sculptures of Chidambaram inspired the postures of Bharatha Natyam.

I entered the temple through the east side and you need to walk in through the two inner prakarams to reach the third prakaram where you need to take walk through the long path to your left and then right and then right near the bronze pillar which is the entrance to the main deity.  The door of the main deity opens only at 4 45 PM in the evening.  In the meanwhile, you can worship the deities in this prakaram - Lord Muruga, Lord Ganesha, Goddess Sivagami, Lord Aadhimoolanathar and Goddess Umaiyammai and shrines for the 63 nayanars of Lord Shiva.

Also in this prakaram is housed the famous Natya Sabhai, a 56-pillared hall where Lord Shiva in the form of Nataraja outdanced Kaali and established his supremacy.

        

The Chit Ambalam is the sanctum sanctorum housing Lord Shiva in the form of Nataraja and his consort Sivagami Sundari.  Pon Ambalam - the golden hall in front of the Chit Ambalam is where the daily rituals are conducted.  There is a shrine for Govindaraja Perumal in the penultimate prakaram.  This shrine is revered as one of the 108 divya desams of Lord Vishnu.

After worshipping the various shrines, I proceeded to the temple for Goddess Sivagami inside the main temple.  While proceeding towards this shrine, one can observe the huge temple tank Sivaganga.  Also, one reaches a point from which he can see all the four outer gopurams at the same time.  I took the blessings of Goddess Sivagami and walked through the outer prakarams for a while before I decided to leave the temple.  

From Chidambaram, I took a bus to Thirukadaiyur, located 42kms on the Chennai-Nagapattinam highway.  All buses bound for Karaikal go through Thirukadaiyur.  I reached Thirukadaiyur and took accommodation in a hotel there.  

Thirukadaiyur is famous for its Sri Amirtha Kadesvarar Temple, dedicated to the Kalantaka form of the Hindu god Shiva in Tamil Nadu, India. It is the place where Shiva protected Markandeya from Yama (Lord of Death) when he was about to take the boy to hell. 

        

Mrigandu Maharishi, a staunch devotee of Shiva led a simple life of worship and penance. He and his wife Marudhamathi had no children. The couple prayed to Lord Shiva to bless them with a child. Pleased with their prayers Shiva appeared before them and granted them their wish but asked the couple to make a difficult choice. Shiva asked them to choose between a hundred children who would not be virtuous but would live a long life & one son who would be the epitome of virtuousness and have the divine blessing, but would live only till the age of sixteen. The couple chose the latter and thus Markandeya was born to them.

Markandeya was very pleasing in his manners and behaviour, and was liked by one and all.  He was intelligent too. At that young age the boy mastered all the scriptures. His parents were proud of his achievements. However, they suddenly remembered that this boy will live only until the age of sixteen.  This realization worried them. When Markandeya inquired them of the reason, his mother could not hide the truth any longer and informed him of the conditional boon which Shiva had granted. Markandeya was very confident that Shiva would protect him.

He made a Lingam out of the wet sand on the banks of Cauvery and started his penance.  He was determined to continue until Lord Shiva appeared before him granted him the boon of immortality. As Markandeya entered his sixteenth year, Yama came to take back his life.  But Markandeya refused to go along with Yama. Yama threw the noose around Markandeya and since he was hugging the Shivalingam, the noose fell around the Shivalingam also.  An angry Shiva killed Yama.  Markandeya then implored Lord Shiva to bring back Yama to life.  Shiva pleased with Markandeya’s selflessness blessed him to be immortal.

The Shiva Lingam is swayambhu (Self manifested). The mark made by Yama’s noose is seen on this Lingam. Some believe that this Lingam is part of the pot of nectar that came out of the Paarkadal or Celestial Ocean. Devas had not invoked Vinayaka before the churning of the Ocean. An angry Vinayaka wanted to teach them a lesson and stole the pot of nectar from the Devas. Vinayakar is called KallaPillayar here, as he had stolen the pot of Nectar from the Devas.

         

As death was conquered at this holy temple at Thirukadaiyur, Sasthiabdhipoorthi (Completion of sixty years), Bheemaratha Shanthi (Completion of 70 years) and Sadhabishegam (Completion of 80 years) are celebrated here.

The temple has a huge outer prakaram with the shrine for Goddess Abirami to the right as soon as you enter the main temple.  Many groups were having Sasthiabdhipoorthi/Sadhabishegam functions conducted at the temple.  The temple undertakes complete planning for these functions including food and accommodation for a payment. 

From Thirukadaiyur, I took a bus to Karaikal (a distance of 22kms) and from there to Nagore (a distance of 14kms).  Nagore is famous for the Nagore Dargah - a minaret built over the tomb Shahul Hamid, a 13th generation descendant of the renowned sufi saint, Muhiyudin Abd al-Qadir al-Jalani.  The Durgah as it stands now was built by devotees whose wishes were fulfilled by praying Shahul.  The central part of the dargah is the tomb of the saint, Shahul Hamid, approached through seven thresholds(four made of silver and three of gold).There is big tank within the temple and its waters are held sacred.

        

The Dargah is a common place of veneration of devotees of various religious faiths. The practise of offering flowers, sweatmeats and food, the way of conducting worship, and playing of musical instruments are followed in the shrine, which are atypical of Hindu tradition.  Other worship practises are offering flags and lighting lamps of ghee at the saint's tomb. Devotees shave their heads near the tank and offer tin or silver plated fascimiles of body parts, houses, sailboats matching their material needs.  Ladies were not allowed into the main shrine.

        

After spending some time at the dargah, I took a share auto to reach Nagapattinam (a distance of 6kms) and from there to Velankanni(a distance of 12kms).  Once a port that traded with Rome and Greece, the tiny commercial center gradually lost its importance to the larger city of Nagapattinam. The canal built to link this town with Vedaranyam still lies to the west. The Vellayar, a minor branch of the Cauvery River, runs south of the town and discharges into the sea.

        

The town is home to a significant Roman Catholic shrine dedicated to Our lady of Good Health.

The church can be traced to the mid-16th century and its founding is attributed to three miracles: the apparition of Mary and Jesus to a slumbering shepherd boy, the curing of a lame buttermilk vendor, and the survival of Portuguese sailors assaulted by a violent sea storm.

        

The Gothic style of architecture is a unique feature of the church. The church itself is an imposing building with inspiring architecture. While the buildings have been painted white, the roof of the church is made of red tiles, providing a striking contrast to the colour of the walls.  

The shrines were maintained very clean and the town itself had a number of facilities for boarding and lodging.  We spent only an hour at Velankanni, since we were racing against time to catch our train from Mannargudi to Chennai.  Once I got on the bus to Mannargudi, I savoured the visits to these spiritual abodes situated along the east coast of Tamil Nadu.