Why this piece?

I never had a habit of writing dairy, nor I am familiar with writing. This is the first time. I just wanted to give a try. The thought of writing a travel-diary has been hovering in my mind for quiet sometime. The credit for this motivation goes to two people, Joel Spolsky and Abhinav.

Preface...

Normally every teenager use to complain about going on an outing to temples along with parents. I have no comments to make about it. Rather it depends on the mentality and the family. But I did enjoyed the trip that I made recently to Thirukadaiyur. As aptly stated in an anonymous mail that was floating around some time back it is up to the individuals to weigh their priorities in allocating time for their family. I felt privileged to spend some time with my parents taking a weekend off from the hectic work and study. A change in place gave me a change of mind. Need no mention, with the newly acquired digi-camera, I had a pleasant time shooting all the way.

Where is it?

Thirukadaiyur is a small temple town along the East coast of TamilNadu. To the best of my knowledge there is nothing other than this historical temple in that town. I guess that is why I couldn't locate a TN map with this place marked on it :-). It is about 12 kms from mayiladuthurai and 24 kms from karaikkal (Pondy). Though the shortest route to Thirukadaiyur is via mayiladuthurai, we took an slightly long route via karaikkal to take advantage of good roads. This also gave us a chance to ply through some of backwater areas in karaikkal.

Chronology...

Running back in chronology, tells me that the Thirukadaiyur Abirami Amman temple construction dates back to the Chola regime (11th Century). The temple is located in an area of 11 acres and has 5 Prakarams The theme of this temple is "Death put to death".  Here goes the story...

Markandeya, son of sage Mrikandu was predicted to live for only 16 years. As advised by his father, Markandeya worshipped Amritaghateswarar in Tirukkadaiyur, bringing the water from Ganges through an underground passage to the temple. The passage is in existence to this day, to a depth of a flight of 20 steps. On the destined day, Yama appeared with his noose, kala paasa. Markandeya sought refuge in the Lord and embraced the Shiva Lingam. The Lord warned Yama not to touch Markandeya as he was under His protection. Yama did not listen and threw the noose that bound Markandeya and the Lingam together. Angered by this act of rashness, the Lord kicked him with the left leg and held him under His left foot, making him inactive.

Images in the temple depict the Lord with a raised forefinger, warning Yama. The mark of the kala paasa is visible on the Lingam. With Yama being rendered inactive, there were no deaths on earth. As nature should have its way, the Kala-samhara-moorthi, the other name by which Amritaghateswarar is known - Lord Shiva brought Death to life. It is here that the significance of 'kicking with the left leg' is spoken about. Had He desired to quell Yama forever, He would have held him under His right leg - as in the case of Muyalaka. The very fact that He used His left leg points to the fact that He intended it as a punishment for an act of rashness and not otherwise.

Since Death was conquered at Tirukkadaiyur, it is not unusual to see couples who have celebrated their sashti-abta-poori (completion of 60 years) and sadhabishekam (completion of 80 years) make it a point to have a darshan of the Kala-samhara-moorthi.

Nitty-gritties...

To much of my surprise the temple has a lush green nandhavanam, which had restricted access to public.

To be frank the sanitation around the temple is much better than the other temple towns in South Tamil Nadu. The whole serene and pious environment of the grand monument is destroyed under the scrupulous making money attitude of the people. I could see that carved roof of the temple getting spoiled because of the performing poojas and homams. Beggars lining up in the temple entrance reminded of Kalam's dream of India2020. Miles to go before we sleep...

Enroute...

On enroute to thriukadaiyur I had to cross Trichy and Tanjore. Here are some of the important places in Trichy and Tanjore.

Trichy

Grand view of Rockfort
At a level crossing
BHEL (Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited)
NIT (National Institute of technology, previously REC)
Akanda Cauvery (This time I could spot cauvery with water. Thanks to the rain spell that lashed south TN the week the before I went.)

Akanda in tamil means wide spread. Cauvery river becomes very shallow and wide spread in trichy. You could located sand dunes in between the river flow. To be  precise, the river splits into two branches and rejoins back creating an island kind of region in-between. And in that island is the grand SriRangam temple.

The Rice bowl of South India. This place has a Tamil University and Brihadeeswarar Temple. Brihadeeswarar Temple aka the Thanjai Periya Koil is known for its grand architecture and sculptures. The remarkable feature of this temple is that is prakaram's shadow won't touch the ground and it has a big nandhi made of single stone.