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.
