Epilogue - Part 4 - South Trip after Kailash Mansarovar Yatra 2013

Srivilliputtur, SivaSailam, Mannar Kovil and Brahmadesam

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Early morning next day, that is on 28th August 2013, I left for Nattarasankottai with my cousin. We went walking from Sivaganga to Nattarasankottai, a distance of 10 kms. We left around 6 am and reached the temple of Kannudaiya Nayagi Amman temple by 8 am when the abhishekam was going on. We got to participate in the monring harathi and got kumkuma prasadam and flowers. That was a very divine experience!

I got tempted to take the "Kambakoozhu" sold near the temple and was disappointed with my experience. We walked upto the bus-stand from temple and took bus to Madurai. Reaching Madurai around 12 in the noon, spent some good time chatting with my cousin Renganayaki, Head of English department in Paramakalyani College, Alwarkurichi. She is a poet and a great devotee of Narasimha Swamy. She can talk for hours on poems on NarasimhaSwamy. Right now she is compiling poems by all big composers like Thyagaraja, Annamayya, MuthuSwamy Dikshithar etc. on Narasimha.

It was Gokulashtami day and hence house was getting ready for Bala Krishna. My cousin Padma was fasting that day and was preparing all types of eatables for BalaGopal!

By 5 pm I left for Meenakshi Amman temple as I was feeling guilty that I had not gone to see Her in spite of being in that region for more than 24 hours. I decided to go like a common-man, and opted out of car, taxi, auto-rickshaw arrangement, as I wanted to relive my days in Madurai travelling in crowded town-buses! I must admit that the experience was good as the bus was not crowded, conductor was polite and co-passengers helpful. As the city has changed a lot, I had to take help from other passengers to know about the stop at which I should get down. Just when I got down it started pouring and I took an auto-rickshaw to reach the temple from the bus-stop which is just 2 minutes walking distance. Rickshaw puller took me on a royal ride and made me circumambulate the temple (assuming that I am new to the city) and charged me Rs.40/-. I understood his plight and happily gave away Rs.50/- seeing which he was shocked and overjoyed!

Generally I love to buy "nelamalai" - that is rose garland which is 5 feet height - which can adorn the Goddess from Her neck upto Her feet. This time, as I entered the temple, a lady was selling tightly tied jasmine flowers and tempted me to take it for "Meenakshi's kondai"...

I decided to do something different this time, as I felt very happy just looking at the flower-vendor's face! I took the particular one that was recommended by her, and went straight for Vibhuthi Pillaiyar, and then to the sanctum sanctorum with a Rs.100/- entrance ticket. It is the belief that Meenakshi is one woman who had ruled Madurai even when noone thought in terms of women's liberation etc. :-) She had conquered the regions upto Himalayas and on seeing Lord Siva in Mount Kailash, She wanted to marry Him. He was taken by Her beauty and devotion and agreed to marry Her. But He came in such attire that His would-be mother-in-law fainted just at the first sight of her would-be-son-in-law.  He was clad in elephant skin, tiger skin, snakes as His dress and jewellery and had smeared Himself with Smasana Ashes and His friends were Boothaganas :-)  On the request of Meenakshi, He agreed to dress Himself in silk, gold, diamonds, pearls and applied chandan ( even God had to change Himself to please His mother-in-law!) and married Meenakshi!  Thus Shiva got the name "Sundaresa" in Madurai!


The sight of the mother makes you just stand and look at Her rather than say anything to Her. I get totally speechless in front of Her. The flowers that I had taken went straight on her crown and adorned Her for one full 10 minutes. I was so happy and was about to leave, when a Punditji took it out and brought it out. I requested him to give it to me and he happily obliged! I was thrilled to the core and was held the flower close to my heart and was in tears. Those flowers must have done so much good karma to adorn Meenakshi's crown!

I went to Sundareswarar Sannidhi and was happy to see Him with all alankaram - full with silver snake ornaments and flowers. Meenakshi temple is a must visit for any visitor to India. It is a place full of beautiful sculptures depicting so many mythological stories. The handwork of Pandya sculptors and Nayaka Kings'


I could hear the rain pouring down and the water was seen flowing into the "potramarai kulam" from all four sides. The sight was awesome. In the whole temple complex, rain-water was falling like a waterfall and flowing like a river through the channel meant for that. Beautiful rain-water-harvesting system has been implemented in this temple right from the time the temple got built. Crowd was less and I went around the temple peacefully and when it looked like the rain had reduced its force a little, I ventured out of the temple. But the roads were full with rain water and I had to wade through knee deep water. I did not feel like walking in that water to retrieve my chappal from the chappal-stand and managed to get an auto-rickshaw to reach home.

Janmashtami pooja was going on by Rengam and Padma. I joined them towards the end and we all recited Bhagavad Gita, Krishna ashtotram and other prayer songs on Krishna. The day came to a close with Janmashtami prasadam!

Next day morning, 29th august, I left Madurai by train to Srivilliputhur. This is a pleasant travel for just Rs.14/-. I got a good seat next to a family travelling together. Enjoying the train journey via Thiruparankundram, Virudhunagar, Rajapalayam etc. I reached Srivilliputhur around 9 am. My cousin had organised an auto-rickshaw driver to pick me up at the railway station.

Having listened to Velukudi Krishnan Swami's upanyasam on Andal, I was longing to have darshan of Andal at Srivilliputhur. I had gone to this temple 24 years back when I was 9 months pregnant. This temple gopuram is the emblem in TamilNadu Government logo. It is a beautiful temple - which was originally Andal and Perialwar's house now converted into temple. Commercial tax officer of Sivakasi had come for darshan and a punditji was explaining everything patiently to him. Hence I got good opportunity to enjoy every special feature of the temple.


Andal, Rangamannar and Garudalwar are the main deities. Garudalwar stands just next to Rangamannar as "Mappillai Thozhan - friend of the bridegroom" in the marriage of Andal with Rangamannar.

The parrot in the hands of Andal is to be mentioned specially - a particular family makes this parrot everyday for adorning the hands of Thayar.


Temple complex has Andal temple, Vadabadrasayee temple and the garden where Andal was found by Perialwar.  I had a pleasant surprise at Vadabadrasayee temple, where the temple assistant requested me to clean and polish the huge temple lamp. As that day was "uriyadi" day, he had too many lamps to clean and he wanted me to help him clean the tallest, biggest one, nearly 6 feet tall and weighing some 30 kgs easily.. Another lady came to my help and we carried the lamp to the ground level and cleaned it using pitambari, shikakai and tamarind paste.

I did some simple shopping for Srivilliputhur famous "palkova", snana powder and milk sweets.  Just outside the temple complex is the agraharam with 10 houses which makes one remember the 10 pasurams in Thirupavai where Andal makes her friends living in those 10 houses wake up for worship in the temple.

I ate in a small restaurant near the temple and took train to Tenkasi. From Tenkasi I took another train to Alwarkurichi and reached my destination at around 5 pm. Rengam waited for me in the station as she had reached her college ealy morning.

We both went to Sivasailam temple. Tamarabharani river flowing near the temple tempted me to take a plunge in the river.

As there is a nice dress changing room near the bathing ghat, I ventured into the cool clean water of the river. 2 more ladies were also taking bath there. I did not feel like getting out of the water! Rengam was also very liberal with me and told me to enjoy not worrying about time. I must have spent nearly one hour in the river when she was sitting on the stone steps outside. We went to the Kailasanathar Paramakalyani temple where the archakar gave us kumkumam and haldi prasadam.


We reached Rengam's official quarters where she had prepared tasty food. Stomach and heart filled, my eyes were closing by 8 pm. But Rengam was regaling me with anecdotes of her college, colleagues, her collection of CDs and books - and finally I slept around 10 pm.

Next day morning, she went to college and had organised a car for my travel to different places in and around Alwarkurichi. I went to Mannar Kovil and Brahmadesam nearby.

Mannar Kovil is a Vishnu temple with Perumal in 3 states - "Nindra, Amarndha and Kidandha kolam" - standing, sitting and lying down postures. God is not made of stone as in any other south Indian temples, but is "sudai" - meaning clay, with vegetable colour on the clay.  Each clay sculpture is a feast to the eye! Temple is huge, clean and well maintained. The punditji of the temple is a young handsome, pious gentleman who radiates divinity! This is the place where Kulasekara Alwar took samadhi and hence there is a separate sannidhi for Kulasekara Alwar. We can see the moorthies of Rama, Sita and Hanuman worshipped by Kulasekara Alwar in this temple. I must mention the way the temple is maintained - clean, neat, divine and beautiful!

My next stop was in Brahmadesam, a Shiva temple - totally ill-kept, badly maintained and uncared for. The Shivacharyar of the temple was not seen when we went inside avoiding a group of monkeyes sitting on the way. Such huge temple to be maintained by one person, who has to do pooja, clean, and maintain safety of temple assets is a very difficult task. I was wondering why the students of the area are not contributing to the cleanliness of the temple. In fact, the few villagers whom I saw near the temple are busy either playing cards or just sleeping - womenfolk are busy folding tobacco leaves on payment basis!  If God Himself is allowing this state of affairs in His own place, who am I to lament?

Brahmadesam temple house 5 roopas of Shiva and Parvati. The architecture is beautiful and the temple complex huge! I learnt from the driver that this temple has been used to few shots in some famous Tamil Television serial starring some famous actress. Other than this, the driver had no big useful information to share with me on these temples, though he is a native of the place and lives there.

Coming back to Alwarkurichi crossing beautiful paddy fields, I went to Paramakalyani college to meet Rengam. She introduced me to her Principal, colleagues and Board member. Beautiful, spacious big college in such small place serving the poor students of that region - a million salutes to the founder Sri Anantharamakrishnan and his family who take keen interest on this college.

We left for Koutrallam waterfalls. I enjoyed standing under the water falling with good force in 5-falls - aindharuvi. Though it was getting dark, the water was so inviting, refreshing and relaxing, I went and stood under each fall for long time. Very few people were there, and as per Rengam, the flow of water was much less than what she has experienced many times. For Rs.5/- payment, we get decent enclosure to change clothes. On Rengam's advice I had applied lots of oil in my hair which had gone with no trace just after standing in the waterfall!

We went to Tenkasi Viswanathar temple and had good darshan. On her insistence we ate temple prasadam, some fried items from a shop outside and some hot milk. We reached the railway station in time for the train to Madurai. After a round of counselling session by Rengam to her regular flower vendor on some property matters, we settled ourselves in the train. In fact, this flower vendor had bought the tickets for us much before we reached the station and we collected it from her after payment to her. I was surprised to see such people even in these days who help others in their own way.

Thus my day ended happily in that beautiful southern most part of our beautiful country.