Tiruchendur Kanyakumari Papanasam visit

Tamilnadu Temples

It was my wife’s a decade long dream to visit Tiruchendur - the sea shore temple of Lord Murugan,  one of the six abodes of Him.  As per the standard phrase in Tamil – “time has to come for everything to happen”.  We finally booked our tickets to Tirunelveli sometime in Jan 2019 for our journey on 1^st March 2019.  Initially, Kaushik was not expected to join us and tickets were not booked.  However, due to coaxing from his brother, he also agreed to join for the trip and could get only an onward WL ticket and a return RAC ticket.  Some years back, a TT collector had informed me that chances of ‘conversion’ is high if one buys a ticket at the railway counters.  Keeping this in mind, I advised him to buy his ticket from KR Puram Railway station.  I strongly believe that this helped in his ticket getting converted into a RAC for onward and a confirmed sleeper for his return journey.

Having booked the tickets, it was now time to draw up an itinerary.  One has many options – a) Google karo and DIY (do it yourself); b) check with family who have visited earlier and draw up a plan;  c) phone a friend and tell him to draw up an itinerary.  I chose the last option as I did not want to re-invent the wheel.  One of my friend is retired and I am glad I could give him some task to keep him occupied.  I can hear him murmuring ‘maganey, next time vaa, I will handle you differently’.  Hehe, don’t take it serious my dear friend Kumara Ramaswamy.

1^st Mar 2019 (Fri) – As our train was around 1730 hours in the evening, I decided to work from home as otherwise I would need to spend more than 3 hours in commuting.  Work from home is something that I do only twice or thrice a year – for two reasons: a) effectiveness when working from office b) work from home may require work for home also, which is more tiring and the performance evaluated at the end of the day by the Lady of the House!  Kaushik came home early stating he has to take his grandma to the hospital.  I know grand-children are deeply attached to grand-parents, especially when it’s time to take leave, right from school days.

We boarded our train Bangalore–Nagercoil Express around 1730 hours and reached Tirunelveli around 0600 hours on the next day.

2^nd Mar 2019 (Sat) – I had booked Sree Bharani Hotels, situated within a distance of 0.5 kms from Tirunelveli Railway Station.  We decided to walk to the hotel as we had limited luggage and morning walk is good.  As a captain, I was walking in the front followed by my son and wife.  Little did I realize that my wife will do ‘namaskaram’ to me from behind.  Thud, I heard a noise and there she lay on the road with her chudidhar pyjama torn and her knee bleeding.  Apparently, she had tripped and the fall ripped off her skin.  My son and myself then gave her a helping hand and after a while continued to walk to reach the hotel.

After a bit of nursing the wound, all three of us got ready.  With fuel loaded into our stomach (breakfast), we boarded the cab (3-month old sedan) around 8.45 am.  The driver was a localite and was familiar with all the places.  We gave him a freehand to take us around important temples in the vicinity.  He suggested Nava-Tirupathi temples and we chose two of them.  The first temple was Thiruvaikundam Temple (also known as Srivaikuntam).  It’s about 22 kms from Tirunelveli.  Srivaikuntanathan Perumal is the main deity.  It is one of the 108 Divyadesam dedicated to Lord Vishnu.  It is also one of the Navagraha temples associated with Surya, the Sun God.  The Rajagopuram is 110 ft tall.

Legend: “As per Hindu legend, Somukasura a demon stole the four Vedas (sacred texts) from Brahma.  Brahma did severe penance in the banks of Tamiraparani River seeking favour from Vishnu. Vishnu appeared to Brahma and promised to retrieve the Vedas. Taking the form of a celestial 'Matsya', Lord Vishnu killed the demon Somuka and restored the Vedas to Brahma. He also wished to set his abode as Srivakuntam and resided there as Vaikuntanatha.

As per another legend, the image of Vaikuntanatha, over the period of several ages, had no patrons and was left submerged under the Earth. A cow was found to yielding milk on the idol.  This was discovered by the King and he dug up the region around the place.  He found the image of Vaikuntanathar, reinstated and expanded the temple. Since Vaikuntanathar was revealed by the cow, the presiding deity got the name Pal Pandian (pal in Tamil indicates milk).

Kaladushana was a head of robbers in the region. The ruling Pandya king wanted to arrest him, but his attempts were futile. Kaladushana prayed to Srivaikuntanathar to save him and his troop from the king. Vaikuntanathar appeared as Kaldushana and surrendered before the king.  Later, he appeared in the dreams of the king to narrate the events and also informed him that he wanted the king and the people to learn that large accumulation of ill-gotten wealth would be stolen and would reach the right hands.  The king was enlightened and he released Kaladushana and his troop.  Since Vaikuntanathar appeared for thieves (called kalla in Tamil), he came to be known as Kallapiran”.

The architecture is amazing.  There are hundreds of pillars in the temple. The temple spans an area of around 5 acres and is very cleanly maintained.  It was worth a visit and seek the blessings of the presiding Deity.  Thank you Vaikuntanatha !

Our next destination was Alwarthirunagari Perumal Temple.  This is also one of the Nava Tirupathi temples and part of 108 Divyadesam dedicated to Lord Vishnu.  The temple is considered as the birthplace of Nammazhwar.   It is one of the Navagraha temples associated with Jupiter, the Guru.  The Rajagopuram is 95 ft tall.  This temple also has splendid architecture.

After having a satisfying start (beware, mischief mongers - am not talking of the ‘thud’ here), we then headed to Tiruchendur.  We reached the place around 11.00 am and bought ‘normal special’ tickets for the darshan.  There are ‘special special’ tickets also (sounds funny !).  Judging by the availability of parking space, the driver informed us that the crowd is limited as it was examination time.  By mistake, I think we entered the ‘general’ queue and not the queue earmarked for ‘special’ tickets.  Had a good 10 minute darshan of Lord Subramanya Utsavar Murthy.  However, could get only a glimpse of the main Deity.  I then informed the Security that by mistake we have come in the wrong queue.  The security was kind enough to let us enter the ‘right’ queue.  It warranted us to wade through in the reverse direction (similar to driving the wrong way in a one-way lane).  With some difficulty, we managed to get into the ‘right’ line and stood for about 20 minutes in the line before we were opposite the Lord at a ‘hand-shake’ distance.  A good 2 minute undisturbed ‘Darshan’ was the prize bestowed on us by Him.  We salute you for your Blessings, Lord Muruga (Kumara – the other name for Him).  We then came out from the temple and had some photo shoots, as it’s a sea-shore temple.  To recall one’s memory, when Tsunami hit the Asian Continent in Dec 2004, many countries along the coastal line of Indian Ocean were affected.  Despite being a sea-shore temple, the water went in the opposite direction of the temple and never entered the temple, even at times of crisis.

After re-fuelling our stomach with lunch, we then headed to Kanyakumari, around 90 kms from Tiruchendur.  Upon reaching Kanyakumari around 3.30 pm, the driver asked us to head straight towards buying a ticket for the boat, as the sale of tickets will be close around 4.00 pm.

It took almost 30 minutes to buy the ticket and enter the boat.  I believe during peak holiday season, it takes almost 3 hours just to buy the ticket and enter the boat.  It was a quick 5 minute boat journey to Vivekananda Rock Memorial.  It was built in 1970 in honour of Swami Vivekanand who is said to have attained enlightenment on the rock. The place is quite serene.  The gust of wind was heavy.  A couple of photo shoots and we were ready to take the return boat journey. 

We then headed to Devi Kanyakumari Temple (also known as ‘Shree ‘Bhagavathy’ in the form of an adolescent girl child).  The temple is located in the southern tip of mainland India, at the confluence of Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. Kanyakumari Temple is one of the 51 Shakti Peetams.

Mythological Origin: “Bana an asura by birth practiced tapasya and obtained a boon from Lord Brahma that his death will only be by an adolescent virgin girl.  With this powerful boon, he became fearless and wreaked havoc on the entire world. He went on to conquer and oust Lord Indra from his throne. It is believed that Bhagavathy, the unbiased Prakriti, can only bring order.  Bhagavathy manifested herself in the Southern tip of the Aryavartha, to kill Bana and recur the balance of nature. As an adolescent girl, she had immense devotion towards Lord Shiva. The Lord decided to marry her. All arrangements were made for the marriage. Lord Shiva started the journey from Suchindram for the marriage. The marriage muhurtham was in the early in the morning.  Narada made the sound of a cock sending wrong information that the Sun had already risen and the auspicious time passed. The marriage procession returned.  Sage Narada realized Bana could only be killed by a virgin girl and thus interrupted Shiva’s marriage with Bhagavathy.

Devi waited for the Lord and finally, she thought that she had been snubbed. With unbearable insult, pain, grief, and anger she destroyed everything she saw. She threw away all the food and broke her bangles. When she finally gained her composure she chooses to be a virgin forever and took to penance. Ages later Bana, tried to lure and approach the goddess without realizing who she was. The infuriated Bhagavathy, who was the Bhadrakali herself, slaughtered Bana at once. Bhagavathy maintained her divine presence in the place”.

Post having a good Dharshan of Bhagavathy, we then headed to the sunset view point. We reached the place around 6 pm and found a place on the rock to be seated and witness Nature’s beauty.  The sun set around 6.30 pm.  However, personally I was disheartened as the sun started to disappear inside the clouds as it was not a clear blue sky. Kaushik managed to record the glory to the available extent.

Our journey then continued towards Suchindram Temple.  It’s about 11 kms from Kanyakumari.  The temple gopuram is about 134 ft tall. The Temple has a large Lingam in the sanctum, Lord Vishnu in Ananthasayanam style in the adjacent shrine and a large idol of Hanuman, which stands at 22 ft tall carved of a single granite block.  We were blessed to have one ‘vada’ as a prasadham from the vada malai (it was yummy !).

Legend: There are many legends associated with this temple. Anasuya, the wife of Atri Maharishi was famous for her chastity and her devotion to her husband.  She could perform miracles by sprinkling the 'paatha theertham' (water with which she washed her husband's feet) to bring rain to a parched earth or to transform objects to her desire.

When the three Devis, - Goddesses Lakshmi, Saraswathy and Parvathy(athishakthi) heard through Sage Naradha the powers of this earthly woman they wanted to test her chastity. They approached their husbands Lords Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva to test Anasuya's devotion to her husband. The three Moorthys transformed into three old mendicants and went to the hermitage where Anasuya was living and sought alms from her. When Anasuya was about to serve them food they told her that they had taken a vow whereby they could not accept alms from a person wearing clothes. As it was a sin to refuse alms to mendicants she prayed to her Lord and sprinkled a little 'paatha theertham' on the three old beggars. They were all immediately transformed into babies and throwing off her clothes she offered them food.

The Goddesses learning what had happened pleaded with Anasuya to grant them 'maankalya biksha' and to give them back their husbands. Anasuya showed them the three babies.  Anasuya then prayed to her Lord to restore them back to their original form. Lo and behold all the 3 Murthys regained their original form.  The Goddesses accepted that Anasuya's fame as the chastest woman on earth was justified. Thus the Thrimoorthy came to be represented by the Lingam at Suchindram; the bottom represents Brahma, the middle represents Vishnu and the top Shiva.

Another legend - Once Indra was infatuated with Ahalya, the wife of Rishi Gautama. One night he came to the hermitage where Gautama was living and crowed like a cock indicating the approach of dawn. Rishi Gautama thinking that dawn was imminent, awoke from his sleep and went to the river for his ablutions prior to commencing his prayers. Realising that it was too dark for dawn and too early for morning to break, he returned to his hut. In the meantime Lord Indra took the physical appearance of Rishi Gautama, approached Ahalya and satisfied his desire. Rishi Gautama then cursed Indra. Lord Indra in order to get rid of this curse went to Gnanaranya and prayed to the Three Moorthys to rid him of this curse. When he was rid of his curse and transformed into his original form, he built a temple and installed the Lingam to represent the three Moorthy - Thanu-Maal-Ayan, and the name of the place came to be known as Suchi-Indran (the place where Indran was purified).

With our day’s plan materialised, we then headed back to Tirunelveli to give some rest to our tiring body (and hopefully enlightened souls).  We reached the hotel around 9.15 pm.

3rd Mar 2019 (Sun): Typical of myself, I woke up my wife and son sooner as per their standards on a Sunday and we were ready by 8.30 am to start the second day of itinerary.  A little bit of quizzing on the local places of interest and mode of transport, the hotelier revealed that there were lots of buses to our next venue – Nellaiappar Koil at a distance of 3 kms from our hotel.  We took the local town bus (without any waiting time) and alighted at the door step of the Gopuram.The temple complex covers an area of around 14 acres and all its shrines are enclosed with concentric rectangular walls.  The original complex is believed to have been built by Pandyas, while the present masonry structure was added by Cholas, Pallavas, Cheras and Madurai Nayaks. Shiva is as Nellaiappar (also called Venuvananathar) represented by the Lingam and his consort Parvati is depicted as Kanthimathi Amman.  Originally the Nellaiappar and Kanthimathi temples were two independent structures with spaces in between. The mani mandapam with its famous musical pillar was built by Later Pandyas in the 7th century.  It was in 1647 that Thiru Vadamalaiappa Pillaiyan, a great devotee of Siva linked the two temples by building the "chain mandapam" (In Tamil Sangili Mandapam).

It was literally a feast to the eyes to see the beautiful architecture of this temple.  One could clearly hear the various rhythm of music as we tap the pillars. With all the advancement in science and technology, I bet the current human race cannot replicate this.  These are true wonders of the world, but sadly remain untold.

We reached our hotel by 11.30 am by taking another bus (again, no waiting time).  Took some rest and had lunch.  By 2.00 pm we boarded the cab to our last sight-seeing/holy spot.  Yes, we headed to Papanasam (also called as Pavanasam) to have a bath at Agasthiyar Falls and visit the Siva Temple at that place.  This was not part of the original itinerary, but got included at the behest of our cab driver.  It is around 45 kms from Tirunelveli. It is believed to be the place where sage Agasthya got a view of Shiva in his marriage costume.

Legend: During the divine wedding of Shiva and Parvathi, there was heavy crowd at Kailash, the abode of Shiva. Sage Agasthya could not view event and prayed to Shiva at this place to get him a view of the event. Pleased by his devotion, Shiva appeared along with Parvathi in his marriage attire. Shiva made the place his abode and came to be called Papansanathar and the falls nearby the temple got the name of Agasthiyar Falls.

As per another legend, the king of celestial deities, Indra slayed a demon Dwastha, the son of Sukracharya (the Guru of Asuras, the demons) as he was performing a penance to seek superior powers against the Devas. Indra incurred Brahmatti Dosha, a sin attained for slaying the Brahmin. He roamed around a lot of places for doing penance and finally on the advice of Brihaspathi, he landed at Papanasam.  As his sin was expiated in this place, it came to be known as Papanasam.

The Papanasanathar Temple  lies in the bank of Thambaraparani river where the main deity is Lord Shiva in the name of Papanasar (Destroyer of Sins).  The name of the Goddess is Lord Loganayaki who is also known as Ulagambigai.  This Papanasar temple is first among the NavaKailayams where the Navagraha known for this temple is Surya (The Sun).  Papanasar is mainly known for his healing powers where he seems to be the medicine for any diseases in the world. He has the power to cure any diseases for his disciples who really have the love and affection on him.

I was given to understand from the driver that the falls come from the forest with lots of herbs and other medicinal plants.  Hence, it has the power to cure many diseases.  In any case, It was a refreshing experience to have a fresh ‘open air’ bath underneath the falls (of course with a towel underneath !). 

We returned to our hotel around 6.15 pm.  After taking a break, we then packed off around 7.30 pm, had dinner and boarded the train back to Bangalore at 8.50 pm.  How can one walk out of Tirunelveli without buying Halwa.  An interesting fact is – Though this Halwa is sold across hundreds of shops in Tirunelveli, the Halwa sold in a shop called ‘Iruttu Kadai’ is the most famous.  Apparently, this shop still operates without electric bulbs.  The Halwa is prepared fresh every day and the sale starts only around 6 pm and carries on until stocks last (generally a couple of hours).  I believe there will be huge rush to purchase this Halwa, which is supposedly the ‘original’ Tirunelveli Halwa.  As it was a Sunday, the shop remained closed and we were not able to purchase the ‘original’ Halwa.  We had to settle with the runner up shop.

Personal remarks: I only wish the Government promotes these important temples through better propaganda mechanism (advertisement/marketing/social networking, etc).  The history, the architecture and the legend – everything is so massive that it’s impossible to re-create  similar temples in today’s era.   Tirunelveli is not an industrial town.  It is mainly surviving due to commercial establishments. With the growing economy and disposable incomes, some of my thoughts to make this happen – a) Organize daily tours from Railway Station/nearest Airport,  b) Build Tourist Homes within walkable distance from each of the main temple,  c) Build a multi-level car park for visitors to park their cars,  d) Provide head-phones with pre-recorded voice in English/Tamil/Hindi on the legend/history of the temple  e) Put up clear and sufficient sign boards on the route so that people do not criss-cross each other and abide by the natural design to be able to absorb more positive energy.  This will also help in an orderly movement of the crowd.  I am sure all of these measures will help boost tourism, bring foreign exchange to the government and more importantly help the world understand our ‘treasures’ of mankind which will eventually lead to ‘global peace’. 

Needless to say, it was a very short and sweet trip, etched in our memories for a long time to come (else, we can always refer this Blog).

Source of Information on Legends/Mythological Origin – Wikipedia