Day 7
In the morning after breakfast at the
restaurant in the hotel where we stayed, we left for Madurai which was our last
halt in this yatra. Our new taxi for this leg of the tour was a Sedan – perfect
for 3 passengers plus driver. Madurai is about 200 kms from Trichy. The roads
were excellent, and the drive was smooth.
First, we went to Samayapuram Mariamman
temple which was 18 kms away. It took us about 30 minutes to reach here
through superb roads. The Devi here is a form of Adi Parashakti and is made up
of sand and clay with extracts of medicinal herbs. She has a distinct red face
and is considered very powerful. People come here to pray for various ailments
to get cured and offer mavilakku (a lamp made of rice flour, ghee and jaggery)
as well as raw salt & neem. As this is not a traditional stone idol, abhishekams
are performed for a small stone statue placed in front of Her. This temple
attracts large crowds especially on Sundays, Tuesdays & Fridays and has the
largest hundi collections in Tamil Nadu after Pazhani. We took a special
darshan queue and could finish our darshan of Devi within 30 minutes. Then we
left for Madurai.
After reaching Madurai, we had lunch in a
restaurant called Gowri Krishna. This a pure veg place and always very crowded
due to their excellent quality of food. We had the regular South Indian platter
served on a banana leaf. The food was decent and piping hot. After this, we
checked into our hotel called Astoria which was a short 5-minute drive away
from this restaurant. This is a decent hotel and worth exploring esp. if you
have a vehicle with you. We had some much-needed rest in the afternoon as we
were tired after a long drive plus heavy lunch. In the evening, surprisingly it
started to pour cats and dogs and we decided to stay in the hotel and relax. The
roads quickly got flooded due to poor drainage system plus clogging with
plastic bags and garbage. Later in the night, it stopped raining, and we again went
to Gowri Krishna, which was very close to our hotel, for dinner which comprised
of some snacks followed by hot milk.
Day 8
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| Pazhamudircholai Temple |
We woke up early and left our hotel by 7 a.m.
Our first halt was at Pazhamudircholai temple, one of the 6 holy Murugan
temple mentioned earlier. This was a 15 km drive from Madurai. As we reached
early, there were very few people in the temple. By purchasing a special
ticket, we were able to sit in front of the sanctum and witness the morning Abhishekam
of the deities – Lord Murugan and His consorts Valli & Devasenai. It was a
very satisfying darshan early in the morning and we considered ourselves lucky
to be granted this. It is in this temple that the great Tamizh Saint & lady
poetess, Avvaiyar, was blessed with the darshan of Lord under a tree. The story
goes like this – after travelling a long distance under the hot summer Sun, she
stopped under this tree to rest a while. Then a young lad approached her and
asked her if he could get for her hot or cool fruits. She scoffed at the idea
of hot fruits and told him that cool fruits would suffice. He then gave her
some fruits picked from the ground which she blew upon to remove the mud
particles stuck to it. So, the lad asked her “Why are you blowing? Are the
fruits hot?” Immediately she realised that it was no ordinary boy, and it was
the Lord Himself. He blessed Her with His original form before disappearing.
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| Pazhamudircholai |
We spent some time at the temple which has a
lot of monkeys in and around it as it is in a dense forest area atop a hill. After
this, we drove down to Azhghar Koil which is the abode of Narayana. This
is located on the foothills of the Pazhamudircholai Murugan temple. This is a
lovely old temple, one of the 108 Divya Desam temples, spread over an area of nearly
2 acres. We had a lovely darshan of the Lord Narayana (known here as Kallazhagar
and Sundarabahu Perumal) who is in a standing posture along with His consorts
Sridevi & Bhudevi. There are also two large images of Lord Narasimha. The
temple also has a unique idol of Chakratazhwar (Sudarshan Chakra) who has a
Chakram with 16 hands each hold a weapon. There was one priest here who kindly
explained the significance of this Deity and told us that those who worship
here don’t need to have any fear of enemies (both external as well as
internal). At this temple we also met a person who has quit his corporate life
and settled down here to do service to the Lord. He was lamenting that the
current generation is more focussed on building personal wealth and there are
very few people who are dedicating their lives to protect, preserve and support
these grand temples of yore.
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| Pazhamudicholai |
Later we purchased the prasadam from the shop
inside the temple and consumed it. It was a thick dosa fried in oil – tasty but
very oily. Then we left for Tiruchendur. En route, we stopped at a small
restaurant for some breakfast of idlis and tea. We reached Tiruchendur in the
afternoon. I found an empty marriage hall to do my afternoon prayers. Then we
had lunch at a restaurant. All meals & food items in this town were having
onion or garlic. So, we could not get the half-jain (food without onion or
garlic) that we were seeking. Then, we took some rest in a shaded area outside
the temple waiting for the temple to re-open post afternoon break. As
Tiruchendur is situated on the seashore, it was quite breezy, and we did not
feel the heat much. Like us there were many yatris who were resting there and
there were tea / coffee / snack vendors to cater to the needs of the yatris. We
spent our afternoon watching & listening to the peacocks which are
available in plenty here.
Tiruchendur Murugan temple is one of the 6 most important abodes of Lord
Muruga. It is here that Lord Muruga rested and bathed after conquering and
killing an Asura called Surapadma who resided in a fortress in the middle of
the ocean. Details of this major battle are given in Skanda Puran written by
Ved Vyasa. The most important festival celebrated here (to mark the above victory) is called Skanda
Sashti which occurs for 6 days immediately following Diwali festival. People
observe fast during these six days and the seventh day is celebrated with much
fervour as it commemorates the wedding of Lord Muruga with Devasena.
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| Tiruchendur |
We had made prior arrangements with a local priest whom we met at around 4.30 p.m. outside the main gate of the temple. He helped us go straight to the sanctum and get darshan of the deities. Because of his assistance, we could get VIP entrance to all the temples within the complex and come out within an hour. Then, we spent a few minutes at the beach adjoining the temple before proceeding back to Madurai by car. En route, we stopped at a roadside restaurant for some refreshments. I took the opportunity to perform my evening prayers outside the hotel. We reached Madurai late at night and had dinner at Gowri Krishna. After that we returned to our hotel to sleep and rest.
(to be continued...)
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