Sri MariyAmman Temple - Punainallur,Thanjavur

This temple is situated at Punnainallur, a small village near Thanjavur, Tamilnadu, India. 

The history states that, before waging a war with the demon Tanja of Tanjore, Lore Siva stationed the Ashta Saktis (eight powers) one at each of the eight directions, and the one stationed at the eastern direction is now the presiding deity of this temple. In the year 1680, when the Maharashtra king Venkoji Maharaja Chatrapati (1676 - 1688) of Tanjore was on a pilgrimage at Samaya- puram, where there is a famous temple dedicated to Kali, Mariamman appeared to the King in his dream and told him -that she (the idol) was in a forest of Punna trees at a distance of about 3 miles from Tanjore. The King lost no time in rushing to the spot indicated to him and recovered the idol from the jungle. 

The goddess cures her devotees of all physical ailments. A charismatic yet considerate form is seen here. Mud replicas of the different parts of the human body are placed in the temple as offering and pleading the mother for cure. This temple was constructed at the place and the idol installed and so the deity of this temple is known as Punnainallur Mariamman. It is said that the daughter of Tulaja Raja (1729-35) of Tanjore, who lost her eyesight in an illness, regained it on offering worship at this temple.

In general all fridays are special, in particular the fridays of the tamil month Aadi will be more special. Devotees throng the temple in August/September, the season which relates a lot with this goddess. Sundays are considered to be the most auspicious days for worshipping the Goddess, when huge crowds mainly consisting of womenfolk and children pay their homage. Poojas listed here are applicable for this temple only.The tariff shown are not actual cost payable to the temple. It includes our service charge, cost of pooja items and Delivery charges.

Seetha Parvathi Temple, Avani Village in Kolar Dist

It gives me immense pleasure in narrating the following temple story. This one story should be enough to feed hopes among childless couple. If you're trying for a baby with no luck, then this is the temple you should be visiting soon. The story I am going to narrate is that of Seetha Parvathi Temple in Avani Village in Mubagalu Taluk, Kolar district in Karnataka.

This is a very ancient temple with rich history to it. The temple history dates back to Ramayana Period.  After rescuing Seetha from Ravana's captivity, Seetha returns home. Seetha is pregnant with twins, Lava and Kusha. During the victory procession, a washerman doubts Seetha's chastity and gossip's with a fellow worker. Hearing this, disturbed Lord Rama sends pregnant Seetha back to exile. Sage Valmiki comes to Seetha's rescue, he takes her to his Ashram. There he nurtures pregnant Seetha with great devotion.  Seetha worship's Godess Parvathi with lots of love and devotion.  During this time Seetha gives birth to twins they live in the Ashram for several years. As young boys Lava & Kusha, challenges their father for a war by tying the AshwaMedha (Horse).  A war breaks out between Lava & Kusha, and Rama & his brothers. Lord Rama and his 3 brothers commit garve mistake by waging war on children. To absolve their bad karma, they establish Couple of shiva lingas called Ramalingeshwara, Lakshmanalingeshwara, Bharathalingeshwara & Shatrugnalingeshwara and cleansed their sins. This place is called Gaya of the south. This place also happens to be where Lord Krishna tied knot to Jambavathi. Successive kings later constructed temple complex around the sacred lingas.

Ramalingeshwara

The Valmiki cave

Bharatha lingeshwara and Shatrugnalingeshwara

in the background on the other cliff is the Sita Paravthi temple

Swayumbu Parvathi Devi

a view from different angle

The idol of parvathi Devi is a swayumbu and the goddess temple is located further away; at an elevated platform from the Shiva temple.  Many centuries later, Parvathi Devi appeared to Adhi Shankara Charya and expresses her desire to establish a Seetha statue next to her swayumbu vigraha. As a great devotee of Shakthi, Adhi Shankara Charya execute her order with great care. Hence this temple came to be known as Seetha Parvathi Temple.

The Dhanushkodi water Tank

The speciality of this temple is you can experience goddess Parvathi Devi's miracle while you're at the temple premises. This temple is located in the premises of Valmiki Ashram. Sage Valmiki lived in this harsh terrain of large boulders. He meditated inside caves. Even today one can find this cave in good condition.  The mud found inside the cave has medicinal properties and used extensively by the villagers to cure stomach ailments. This temple is famous among childless couples. The temple is quite different from the other temples in every aspect. Couple who wish to have children should undertake a small hike to reach the temple (The temples are located on top of the cliff). One will find a water tank called '' Danushkodi''. Here woman should bathe. Without changing the cloths she should carry unbroken coconut with other pooja ingredients and pass through the caves. As soon as you reach the main GarbhaGudi of goddess of Parvathi, the woman starts feeling sleepy and eventually falls asleep and starts dreaming immediately. What you see in your dream is the answer to your questions. Most women describe seeing a woman with ''big bindhi'' on forehand, dressed traditionally & handing out things related to pregnancy like cribs, or baby's anklet etc. This mystery woman is none other than goddess Parvathi. What is more important here is devotion and belief. Also, following the rules of the temple strictly.

Some women who did not believe this, went ahead to test for themselves. And as a result they all did fall asleep at the temple. Instead of seeing a calm, loving woman, what they saw was a scary lady who scared the hell out of them.  When they realized their mistake, the ever loving Parvathi devi blessed them all and fulfilled their wishes too, hence turning non-beleivers to believers. What these woman saw was the ''ugrarupa Parvathi Devi''.  Also, not every women gets to fall asleep. If you're pre-occupied with things then the chances are you may not fall asleep. Even if you fall asleep, you may not see the godess. So please take care of your thoughts and pay attention in following the rituals when you visit this temple.

May all your dreams come true! jai mata Di!!

Sri Prahladavardan (Ahopilam) temple (108 Devaya Desam)

Photo from AhobilamMatt.com

Aho’ means Lion.  ‘Pilam’ means cave.  As the Lord appeared before His devotee Prahladha, He is praised as ‘Prahladha Varadhan’ and his consort is known as Amirtavalli, Chenchulaksmi . Sri Prahladavardan (Lakshmi Narasimhan) temple is located in Singavelkundram (Ahopilam) in Krunool dist. Andhra Pradesh. This Temple is around 2000 years old. Indira theertham, Narasimha theertham, Papanasa Theertham, Gaja theertham and Bargavatheertham are the holy teertham. 

  Prahladha, son of demon Hiranya Kasipu was a staunch Vishnu devotee while the father was adamant claiming that he alone was supreme.  He demanded son Prahladha to show him his Lord.  Undeterred by the threat of his father, Prhaladha said that He was omnipresent and also in the pillar.  Hiranya hit the pillar with his club.  Lord Narasimha appeared from the pillar and destroyed the demon.  The palace where Prahladha said to have lived was reduced to ruins later and is now a jungle. 

The temple has nine forms of Lord Narasimha as His appearance from the pillar, tearing the stomach of demon Hiranya, his roaring indignantly, cooling down as Shantamurti responding to the prayer of Prahladha and so on. 

The hill is called Garudachalam and Garudatri as Sri Garuda performed penance here.  As Tirupati is called Seshadri, Ahobil is called Garudatri.Sri Garuda the eagle vehicle of Vishnu, His Holiness Sri Azhagia Singar the first Jeer of the Mutt had the darshan of the Lord at the temple at the foot hills.

Photo courtesy : http://malolamusic.blogspot.com/

Sri Garuda and Prahladha had the darshan at the hill temple.

The temple enjoys the reputation of being called Nava Narasimha Kshetram as there are 9 Narasimha temples both at the foot and top of the hill totally.

Foot Hill Ahobil temple has 1) Bhargava Narasimha (Sun), 2) Yogananda Narasimha (Saturn), 3) Chakravada Narasimha (Ketu).  The hill temple has 4) Ahobila Narasimha (Jupiter), 5)Varaha (Krotha) Narasimha (Rahu), 6) Malola Narasimha (Venus), 7) Jwala Narasimha (Mars), 8) Bhavana Narasimha ( Mercury) and Karancha Narsimha (Moon).  Worshipping all the Narasimhas in a day means worshipping all the planets at a time.

There is also a story that Perumal left Vaikunda at the request of Garuda for Narasimha incarnation, He married Mahalakshmi here in the guise of hunter.   There is a water falls on the hills named Papanasini.  Varaha Narasimha shrine is above this place.  Two km away is Malola Narasimha while 3 km away is the place where the pillar stands from which Narasimha Murthy appeared for Prahladha.  There is a 85 feet tall pillar made of a single stone before the foothill temple called Jaya Sthamba-pillar of victory.  The foundation for the pillar is 30 feet down the ground.  It is believed that any prayer before this pillar will be duly responded.  It is said that Sri Rama on his way to rescue Sita prayed here and felt that he had won the battle, according to scriptures. 

This is the headquarters of all Ahobil Mutts.  His Holiness Sri Narayana Yatheenthra Maha Desikan Swamigal is the 45^th Jeer of the mutt. When Bhagwan Adi Sankara faced threat to His life, He worshipped all the Nava-nine-Narasimhas and was saved by the Lord, according to Sankara Vijayam volumes.

PS: Feel free to donate generously in restoring this temple.  

Palllikondeswaraswamy Temple, Surutupally

Surya, Chandra, Brahma, Vishnu, Lakshmi, Maarkandeyar, Agasthair, Valmiki, Indran, Naradar, Parvati sametha Parameswara.

 Sri PalliKondeshwarar temple (Suratpalli, Chottor dist, AP) Lord Siva in Sleeping position..! about this temple;- According to Sthalapurana (history of the place), it is said that during the Ksheera Sagara Manthana Poison Halahala was the first to come, the Gods and demons then approached Lord Shiva to save them from the harm of poison. Lord Shiva transformed himself into Vishabhakarana Moorthy and consumed poison. The situation was such that if Lord Shiva did swallow the poison, the living creatures on the earth will die and if he does not, the Gods and Demons will be killed. Hence Goddess Parvati held her hand against his neck and stopped the poison from going any further and the poison remained in His throat without affecting His body. Hence Lord Shiva got the name as ‘Neelakantha’ (‘Neela’- blue with poison and ‘Kantha’- throat) because of the accumulation of the poison in his throat and Goddess Parvati was called as ‘Amudhambigai’. Lord Shiva took the rest here after swallowed the poison..!!

Goddess Matangi

Text courtesy : indianetzone.com Image courtesy : exoticindiaart.com Goddess Matangi is one of the Ten Mahavidyas. She is a primary form of the all-powerful Goddess. The goddess is Siddha Vidya or Tantra personified, thus commanding occult power. According to Hindu Mythology she is believed to be the daughter of Sage Matanga. She is the goddess of beauty, marriage, happy married life, and son and material gains. The goddess has dark emerald complexion and has three eyes. In the mythic cycle of Daksa yajna she appears as a manifestation of Sati, wife of Lord Shiva and the daughter of Daksa. Goddess Matangi is associated with the full moon, the `night of intoxication.` Goddess Matangi resides in the throat chakra. She grants control over poetry and music in particular. It is believed that she was born outside the caste of the Hindus. According the Ramayana her father was a chandala who was raised as a Brahmin. This suggests that she was a non-Vedic deity. She is a complete Goddess in herself despite being portrayed as one of the ten Mahavidyas. Origin of Goddess Matangi :-- The first myth of Matangi associates her with Ucchista Matangini. Once Lord Vishnu and Goddess Lakshmi visited Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati where the former presented the later with food items. While eating few pieces dropped on the floor and from those leftovers a maiden arose who was endowed with good attributes. The maiden came to be known as Uccista Matangini. The second myth associated with the origin of Matangini has been derived from the Pranatosini- Tantra. When Parvati did not return from her fathers abode Shiva disguised himself as an ornament maker and went to her. To test her faithfulness he asked her for lovemaking. Parvati became furious but stopped upon realizing his identity. Later Parvati disguised herself as a huntress and approached Shiva. Lord Shiva was so impressed with her that he even made love with her. While making love Shiva was himself turned into Chandala and realized that the Chandala was his wife Parvati. The goddess requested to Shiva that as they made love in the form of a Chandalini, this form would last forever and will be named as Uccista- Chandalini. The third myth has been derived from the Svatantra- Tantra. According to legend once Matanga assumed austerities to achieve the power to suppress all creatures. He practiced his asceticism for thousands of years. Finally Goddess Tripura Sundari appeared and emitted rays from her eyes from which Goddess Kali emerged. Kali put on a greenish complexion and took the form of Raja-Matangini. With the help of the goddess Matanga fulfilled his desire to control all creatures. Goddess Matangi in Buddhism :-- Goddess Matangi has been associated in Buddhism and also finds mention in the Divyavadana which is a Buddhist collection of stories concerning previous lives of the Buddha that was probably written around 250-300 C.E. these texts relates Matangi as the daughter of elephant hunter king Matang. The Goddess Meenakshi at Madurai is worshipped as Mathangi. Mattangi is also the name of the recluse woman on whom the head of Renuka was placed by Parasurama when he could not find the body of his mother. Since then she has been worshipped as a tutelary deity under the name of Ellamma. Matangi is the adviser of Tripur Sundari. She is summoned to attain command over speech, creativity and knowledge. Matangi is considered as the first mortal being and gave birth to humankind. She is depicted in various forms. She is depicted as green or blue holding a Veena, Knife and a Skull. At times she is seen seated on a corpse, holding a skull and a bowl of blood, with untidy hair. She therefore also represents the transformative power of the Mantra.

Sri Ghattaragi Bhagyamma/ Bhagyavanthi Temple Gulbargha

Vijayanagara Dynasty was established in 1336 by Hakka & Bukka under the able guidance of Vidyaranya Guru. Vijayanagara is referred as the Kingdom of Bisnaga by the Portuguese. It lasted until 1646 although its power declined after a major military defeat in 1565 by the Deccan sultanates. The following temple story has to do everything with Vijayanagara Dynasty’s abrupt end.   Bhuvaneshwari is the family deity of Vijayanagar Dynasty Kings. Rama Raya the last ruler ignored the family deity’s warning and allied with Deccan Sultanates. Vijayanagara Dynasty was built to protect Karnataka from Islamic invasion. Hakka & Bukka brother duo reverted to Hinduism after their brief conversion to Islam. Goddess warned Rama Raya several times on the repercussions of the alliance with the Sultanates and the King paid no heed. She even showed up in his dreams and said she will leave if he does not drop the alliance with the invaders, Rama Raya still did not care.  Dejected by the mistreat, goddess leaves the kingdom. When she left, all the fortunes went with her. Rama Raya was killed by the Sultanates in he battle of Talikot and vijayanagar doomed forever.

After leaving the kingdom, goddess swam through Thungabhadra and Krishna rivers. Finally she came to Bheema river and stayed underneath the river. She penanced underneath the waters for several years. Jamanna was a shepherd and was grazing cattle when he heard voices resonating underneath the water. The shepherd was a stanch Devi devotee and started praying on the banks. The goddess pleased by his devotion appeared to him and narrated the story. He regularly prayed to the Devi. He went to the village and informed this to the village chieftains. Many believed but there were skeptics who doubted the story. So they all gathered at the river banks. A huge snake showed up to them first followed by a glass pillar.  A voice from the pillar resonated asking the villagers to take her with them. Everyone was very happy and delighted to take the goddess (now in the pillar form) with them to the village. But no one was ready to bring it to the shore. The shepherd took the responsibility and brought it to the shore. They took the glass pillar with them all of a sudden a snake accompanied along. The villagers were very scared. The snake vanished but the pillar turned to a black stone pillar. The chieftains welcomed and women offered vermilion, turmeric, flowers and burnt the incense sticks and prayed to the pillar. Pillar was first kept at the Jamanna's door steps. She appeared in Channamma Gowd’s dreams and expressed her wish to stay in their house and vanished. Chennamma was the mother of the village chieftain. Next day, she narrated her dreams to her son and the son was more than happy to fulfill goddess desire. The pillar was installed as per goddess wish. From then on the village and the village chieftains worshiped & they prospered.

The villagers brought the pillar and built a temple around it. The pillar brought a lot of fortune to the people hence she was named Bhagyavanthy (Fortune Giver). She proved to be Kamadenu and Kalparuksha to the villagers. So, in short she is the  family deity of Vijayanagar Kings who flourished when they worshipped her and perished when ignored her. Today the temple is visited by many from all over the country and outside country. This is a place full of miracles and all your sincere prayers are answered. Miracles happen when you believe!

Devarayana Durga

This story is Taken from here ;

Devarayana Durga (DD) is dotted with two main temples mainly the ‘Yoganarasimha’ Temple and the ‘Bhoganarasimha’ Temple. The hilltop gives a splendid view of the surrounding areas. About 3-4Kms from DD is another place called ‘Namada Chilume’.

From Wikipedia entry, the history of DD is as under:

The place was originally known as Anebiddasari then as Jadakana Durga after a chief named Jadaka and finally as Devarayana Durga subsequent to its capture by Mysore king Chikka Devaraja Wodeyar.

Tradition relates that a robber chief named Andhaka or Lingaka had his stronghold here, and he was subdued by sumati, a prince, whose father, Hemachandra, was the king of Karnata and ruled from Yadupattana. On accomplishing the enterprise on which he had set forth, Sumathi is said to have established the city of Bhumandana near the present Nelamangala and taken up residence there for the protection of that part of his fathers kingdom.

Under the Hoysalas, there seems to have been, on the hill, a town called Anebiddasari or the precipice where the elephant fell. A rogue elephant, which the sthala purana describes as a Gandharva suddenly appeared before the town to the great consternation of the people and after doing considerable mischief, tried to walk up the steep rock on the west, when it slipped, fell back and was killed. The hill is accordingly called as Karigiri in the Puranas.

Under the Vijayanagara Kings, the use of the same name continued, and a large tank, named Bukkasamudra, was formed after throwing an embankment across the gorge from which the river Jayamangali has its source. Remains of the embankment and of the adjacent town can still be traced.

Coming to the details of the trip, early in the morning I and my friend missed the direct bus which leaves Bangalore at 8:00 am, as we were unaware of the timing we reached there at 8:05 am and the bus had left by then. We then took one of the numerous KSRTC buses which head to Tumkur (Cost Rs 36/- per head). The journey was quite fine, infact the middle section of the journey was quite wonderful due to very good road condition.

We finally reached Tumkur at 10:10 am. When we enquired at the bus stand only to find that the next direct bus is at 12:30pm. After a bit of looking around we found out that there are private buses to a place which is about 6Kms from DD. Hence we took the risk of having to walk around 6Kms and took the private bus (Cost Rs. 5/- per head) which left at 10:30am. We reached the cross road we were supposed to start walking at around 11:00 am. We began our long walk, but within a few minutes a kind gentleman offered us a lift in his car. He was a rice mill owner and he enquired about us and gave us a lot of information about the place.

We quickly reached the ‘Bhoganarasimha’ temple situated at the foot, we went inside the temple had a quick look around. Had Idli (Cost Rs. 10/- per plate consisting of 3 Idliys) at a small shop near the temple and our gentleman again offered us a lift to the top of the hills. The vehicles can go a good 2Kms through the zig zag road towards the top. But to reach the temple one has to climb a good few hundred steps. Here again we had a quick look at the temple, the temple is good and we had a good time there.

Outside the temple is a small pond and beside that is the way to go right to the top of the hills. We ventured on the pathways, no steps here and went towards the top, we had to navigate through some rocks, narrow pathways before reaching the top. The top of the hill has some building structure which I am unable to say what. It looks like a place where the person keeping watch would rest.

This place offered splendid view of the places around and it was quite a wonderful experience to be able to stand there with the cold breeze blowing. It took me to a totally different world all together. It was an experience which cannot be put down in words. People say what do you get by going up the hills, I say you have to climb one and see the view from the top to really understand the true feeling.

At around 2:00 pm we headed down the hills towards the bottom of the hills where we had first gone. This is the place where the buses stand. We quickly had our lunch (Puliogare – Cost Rs. 15/- per plate) at the same place where we had Idli’s in the morning. We though of heading back to Bangalore by the 3:30 bus. But finally at around 2:45pm we decided to walk the 3-4Kms to ‘Namada Chilume’, how could we miss this place which is so near by and we had so much time in our hands.

Hence we walked….walked…and walked….the roads were deserted expect for the old vehicles which were passings by. We had a great time walking through the area which was fully covered by trees, hence we did not feel the sun much. We were hoping to see the Yellow throated Bulbul which can be found here, but alas we could not spot any on the way.

We reached ‘Namada Chilume’ at around 3:20pm. . Myth has it that Rama on his way to Lanka halted here. As he did not find water anywhere around to wet the “nAma” (a kind of paste Hindus apply on their forehead), he shot an arrow into the ground, and a spring sprang and thus the name ‘Namada Chilume’. The spring can be still seen as a small stream of water coming out of the ground. The actual source is completely barricaded, hence they have made another hole into which the water flows from where people can collect the water. There is also an foot impression of Lord Sri Rama near that, which I surprisingly missed out and did not notice. There is also a deer park in the same campus. The entry fees to the place is Rs.3 per head.

Just opposite to ‘Namada Chilume’ is a nursery of medicinal plants which is being maintained by the forest department. This place is also good, but we could not stay longer as we had to catch a private bus (Cost Rs. 6/- per head) going to Tumkur which arrived here sharp at 4:30pm by which we reached Tumkur by 5:00pm. We had juice to gain some energy and quieten our thirst and left Tumkur by KSRTC bus (Cost Rs. 36/- per head) at 5:20pm. We reached Bangalore by 7:30 pm.

Tips/Suggestions

• Always take the direct bus available as they do via the nearest route, unlike us who went via Tumkur.
• If you are going by a private vehicle there are other places which can be visited near by, one which I can recollect is ‘Sivagange’, please ask around and you will surely find quite a few options.
• The total expenses incurred by us for the journey was Rs. 131/- per head including the tickets and the food. Hence it is quite a cheap trip if you go by bus. Still cheaper if you can pack and take you food along. Though the small shop offering food is quite reasonably priced.
• Do not just go till the temple at the top and return, instead climb further to the top for the ultimate experience.