TIRUPPERUNTHURAI (Avudaiyarkoil) . Avudayarkoil better known as Tirupperundurai in Saivaite literature is 13 Kms from Arantangi on the road to Mimisal. The Temple complex is fairly large one with main entrance facing South. The imposing seven storied main Gopuram is built on the second of the five prakarams. This holy place is famous for its historical and religious importance gained by the close association with Saint Manickavasagar. The presiding deity of this temple is known as Sri Athmanatha swami Lord of (formless) Self and the consort is Siva Yoga Nayaki or Yogambikai. There is no Siva Lingam in the Sanctum which is also facing South. The Lord is represented by Avudayarthe pedestal. Outer Gold kavacha shaped as Sivalinga is kept on the Avudayar (Pedestal) for the purpose of Abhisheka and Pooja. Similarly the consort Yogambikai in her Sanctum has also no form. She is represented by Golden foot prints on the peedam. There is no Nandhikeswarar, nor the tradtional Kodimaram - Flagpost or Balipeedam in the Temple. Even the Pradosha pooja which is done to the Nandhi in Siva Temples is performed to Sri Manickavasagar here.There is no shrine for Chandikeswarar either. First thing that is strikingly different from other temples here is its clenliness. AvudayarKoil is under the administration of Thiruvavaduthurai Adheenam. Every part of the temple is kept clean. The main part of the Temple consisting of Sanctums of Lord Athmanathaswami and Yogambikai togather with the holy Kurundhai stone under which Saint Manickavasagar got his Guru Dheeksha must have been built by Saint Manickavasagar. All other structures must have been added by many Royal dynasties later on in stages. Pooja Rituals in this Temple follow Agamic traditions as also Vedic like in Chidambaram and performed by the priests belonging to a sect called Nambiyars (Nambis). Originally this Temple was owned by 301 families of Nambiyars. Due to various reasons and fund crunch the Temple was handed over to Tiruvavaduthurai Adheenam. Now there are only 30 odd families of Nambiyars to look after the Pooja rituals of the Temple. Another unique custom in this Temple is the offering of cooked Boiled rice, Bitter gourd and Keerai (greens) as Neivedyam offering to the Lord. The cooked boiled rice is spread on the stone before the Lord in the Sanctum and the steam is shown as nivedanam along with other items mentioned. These offerings are made for all the six times of Pooja. Avydayarkoil is known for its sculptural excellence. Every thing in this temple is beautiful. There are Six Mandapams in the Temple containing exquisitely carved figures in the stone pillars. The larger than life monolith figures of Agni and Agora Veerabadras at the entrance and Kaalidevi, Subrahmanya with bow, Bikshadanar, Sankaranarayanar, Urdhuvathandavar, Pasupatheeswarar and Narasimhamurthy are note worthy. Two other sculptures of Kuravan and Kurathi exhibits the excellence of the artists for minute details from toe to hair style. You can see similar sculptures at Krishnapuram in Tirunelveli district (Tamilnadu), which was built by Nayaks of Madurai. But the most awe inspiring work is seen insides of the Canopy and Sun shades known as Kodungai which stretches all around the Mandapams. The rafters, tiles, paddings with hinges and decorative nails chiseled out of stone looks as though they were done in wood and iron. All over the ceilings are decorated with flowery patterns and stone chain links. At one place the stars are given the form of constellations that we see in the sky. There is no separate Navagraha Sannadhi here, instead the nine gruhas with their consorts are carved on pillars which found in a straight line.Nice fresco paintings on the ceilings and walls in the Temple. Not sure about the date of this work. May be done during the period of Nayak or Maratha rulers. Gopuram over the sanctum is covered with copper plates just in Chidambaram. There are Ten Theerthams (water sources) in the Temple complex. The biggest among them is known as Agni Theertham, the main tank which has well built steps and clean water for bathing. The Main festivals of the Temple take place during the Tamil months of Aani (June-July) and Margazhi (December-January). All festivals are Celebrated in relation to events connected with Saint Manickavasagar. Avudayarkoil is closely associated with Saint Manickavasagar and his magnum opus Thiruvasagam. This post may not be complete unless a brief biography of the Saint is included. The story begins with an account of Manikkavachagar’s birth and childhood. After demonstrating himself to be a child prodigy who excelled in all branches of knowledge, he was appointed chief minister of the Pandyan kingdom at the age of sixteen. Though he was given all the accoutrements of worldly power, he realised the emptiness of worldly life and secretly longed to meet a teacher who would bestow on him true knowledge. An opportunity to meet such a Guru arose when the Pandyan king, hearing that valuable horses were available at the port of Perunturai, sent Manikkavachagar there to buy them on his behalf. The chapter begins on Mount Kailas with various gods paying their respects to Siva. Siva then announced that it was time for him to go to the world of men in order to become Manikkavachagar’s Guru. He ordered many of the celestial beings to come with him, disguised as earthly devotees, and headed for Perunturai, the port on the Tamil coast where Manikkavachagar had been sent to buy horses for his king. Siva waited for his arrival in a grove of trees. When the advance guard of Manikkavachagar’s escort informed the chief minister that a great sage was sitting under a kuruntham tree in that grove, he immediately went there in the hope that this teacher could grant him liberation. Manikkavachagar paid his respects and asked Siva to bestow true knowledge on him. Though Siva was disguised as an earthly being, Manikkavachagar knew intuitively that it was Siva himself who had taken the form of a human Guru. Siva agreed to accept him as his disciple, and preparations were made for a great initiation ceremony. Manikkavachagar performed an elaborate ritual worship, after which Siva placed his feet on Manikkavachagar’s head and granted him liberation. Manikkavachagar profusely expressed his thanks and gratitude. Siva then gave a long speech in which he summed up Saiva philosophy and when the explanation was concluded, Manikkavachagar expressed his love and gratitude by handing over to him all the treasure that the king had given to him to buy horses. He declared that he would stay with Siva and not return to Madurai. Manikkavachagar’s party returned home to inform the king of what had happened. The king was, quite naturally, very angry with Manikkavachagar. He sent him a written message, demanding that he return to Madurai immediately. Manikkavachagar refused to read the message himself, but he allowed one of the emissaries to read it out to him. Once he had heard what the king had written, Manikkavachagar took the message to Siva and asked him what he should do. Siva undertook to bring the horses to Madurai on a particular day. He also gave Manikkavachagar a very valuable ruby as a present to give to the king and asked him to return to Madurai. On his arrival in Madurai, Manikkavachagar gave the king the ruby and promised that the horses would arrive on the day that Siva had specified. The king initially accepted his story. However, some of the people who had accompanied Manikkavachagar told the king what they had witnessed in Perunturai, saying that they had seen Manikkavachagar give away all the king’s treasure to a spiritual teacher. The king sent messengers to Perunturai to see if there really were any horses that were due to come to Madurai, and when these emissaries reported that there were not, he ordered Manikkavachagar to be thrown in jail. As a further punishment he was made to stand outside in the fierce heat of the sun, from where he launched a passionate appeal to Siva to save him. On the day that the horses were due to be delivered, Siva converted all the local jackals into horses and herded them towards Madurai. Siva and his entourage disguised themselves as horse traders in order to deliver the horses personally. When the king was informed that the promised horses had arrived, he released Manikkavachagar from prison and restored him to his former position. The king, after rewarding Siva by presenting him with a very valuable silk cloth, embroidered with gold, ordered his experts to examine the horses. They all pronounced themselves satisfied with them. Later that evening, after Siva had handed over the horses and departed, all the horses turned back into jackals, which terrorised the city. Then, the numbers of jackals multiplied until there were millions of them, all of which attacked the people and the animals of Madurai. Shortly after the king had been informed of this latest development, Siva made all the jackals disappear. The king arrested Manikkavachagar again and resumed the former punishment of making him stand outside all day in the hot sun. The chapter ends with Manikkavachagar again appealing to Siva for help. Siva responded by causing the Vaigai River to flood Madurai. When the king’s prayers to make the flood subside went unheeded, he asked his advisors if there was anything he had done that might be the cause of this catastrophe. The ministers advised releasing Manikkavachagar from prison, and the king agreed, saying that he too had been thinking of this remedy. When Manikkavachagar was brought before him, the king apologised and asked him to solve the flooding problem. Manikkavachagar prayed to Siva, and Siva responded by making the flood waters subside. In order to prevent subsequent floods, Manikkavachagar ordered an embankment to be built. All the citizens of the city were allocated a portion of the river bank and were told to construct an earthen barrier that would prevent future floods. An elderly woman called Vanti was too feeble do her allotted work. She appealed to Siva, saying that she could not find any able-bodied workers to help her. Siva decided to appear before her in the form of a worker and do her work for her. When he appeared, Vanti offered him sweet rice cakes as payment, and Siva agreed to take the job. However, once Siva began to do the work, he performed in a very erratic manner, and very little of the work actually got done. Manikkavachagar asked his subordinates to inspect the river bank to make sure that all the work was being done properly. When one of these inspectors discovered that Siva’s section had not been done properly, he was dragged off to the next person up in the chain of command. This overseer struck Siva with a stick as a punishment for not working properly, but when the stick fell on Siva’s back, he vanished into thin air, and simultaneously everyone in the world and in the heavens felt the pain of the blow at the same time. As the overseers rushed to Manikkavachagar to tell him about this latest development, Manikkavachagar immediately understood what had happened. He went to the spot where Siva had manifested and lamented that he had been unable to have Siva’s darshan while he was working on the dam. While Manikkavachagar was expressing these sentiments, Siva caused the Vaigai River to dry up completely. The king finally realised that all these events had just been a divine sport of Siva. He summoned Manikkavachagar and apologised for having treated him so badly. He offered to reinstate him in his old job, but Manikkavachagar declined, saying that he preferred to be with Siva. He left Madurai and went back to Perunturai, where he found Siva and his devotees sitting under the same tree. Siva informed Manikkavachagar that he would return to Kailas alone, and that everyone there should stay on earth for some more time. He told them that they should stay near the kuruntham tree, worshipping him, until a great fire appeared in a nearby sacred tank. When this occurred they should all jump into the fire. As Siva began to walk away, Manikkavachagar followed him. Siva told him that when the fire appeared in the tank he should not jump into it along with the other devotees. He should instead go to various famous Siva shrines. He was promised that in each place he would have a vision of Siva. Manikkavachagar was also told that it was his destiny to vanquish a Buddhist scholar in a debate in Chidambaram, after which he could rejoin Siva. When Manikkavachagar queried these instructions Siva told him that he would obtain his final deliverance in Chidambaram where the latter performs his cosmic dance. Siva then gave him a brief lecture on the meaning and significance of the cosmic dance. When Siva departed, Manikkavachagar rejoined the celestial beings who were worshipping Siva under the kuruntham tree. While he was there he composed some of the hymns that appear in theTiruvachakam. After a few days, as Siva had predicted, a large fire appeared in the nearby tank. All the devotees of Siva, except for Manikkavachagar, jumped into it, chanting Siva’s name. The celestial beings who had taken on the form of earthly devotees resumed their usual heavenly form when they emerged from the fire and rejoined Siva. As they emerged Siva explained to them that he had asked them to remain on earth a little longer to lessen the pains of separation that Manikkavachagar was feeling. He added that the fire had been necessary to burn up any contamination that might have occurred as a result of their brief visit to the world of men. Manikkavachagar started meditating under a tree and had a vision in which he saw all that Siva had done on his visits to Madurai and Perunturai, and all the deeds that Manikkavachagar himself was destined to do in the future. When he resumed his usual consciousness, he composed several more Tiruvachakamhymns. He then followed Siva’s instructions and began to visit all the shrines he had been asked to go to. He continued to compose Tiruvachakam hymns, and in each place he visited he had a vision of Siva. His pilgrimage ended in the temple of Chidambaram where Siva appeared to him yet again. When he had visited all the places in Chidambaram associated with Siva and his devotees, and after composing several more Tiruvachakam hymns, he settled in a small hut on the outskirts of the city. The chapter begins with a devotee of Siva going to Sri Lanka and singing the praises of Chidambaram and its Golden Hall where Siva resides. The king of Sri Lanka heard about him and summoned him to appear in his court. The sadhuwent and gave a speech to the king in which he extolled the greatness of Chidambaram. A Buddhist scholar who was present became angry and said that he would travel to Chidambaram, convert all the Saivas there and install a statue of the Buddha in the temple. The king, who had a daughter who was dumb, decided to travel to Chidambaram as well in the hope that she might be cured there. On their arrival, the Buddhist scholar challenged the devotees of Siva to a debate, saying that he would defeat them in argument and prove that their beliefs were wrong. His challenge was accepted and it was agreed that the debate would take place in the presence of the two kings. On the night before the debate Siva appeared in the dreams of all the temple priests and told them that they should go to Manikkavachagar’s hut and ask him to be their representative in the debate. Manikkavachagar agreed to come the next day and refute the Buddhist’s arguments. When the debate got under way both the Buddhist scholar and Manikkavachagar severely criticised and ridiculed the other’s point of view. At one point Manikkavachagar grew angry with what he said were the lies coming out of the Buddhist’s mouth. He called on Saraswati, the goddess of speech, to leave the Buddhist’s tongue so that he could no longer utter any falsehoods. When Saraswati complied with this request, the scholar and his associates were all struck dumb. The Sri Lankan king, impressed by this performance, prostrated before Manikkavachagar and informed him that his own daughter was dumb. He added that if Manikkavachagar could cure her, he himself would convert and become a Saiva. Manikkavachagar called the daughter and asked her to give a public refutation of all the arguments that the Buddhist scholar had propounded. The daughter obliged and, speaking for the first time in her life, gave an erudite lecture that refuted the Buddhist position. The king, overjoyed, became a Saiva and requested Manikkavachagar to cure the dumbness of the Buddhist scholars. Manikkavachagar obliged, and the Buddhists, after acknowledging their erroneous views, also converted to Saivism. The final chapter begins with Manikkavachagar living in Chidambaram, singing the remaining hymns of the Tiruvachakam. Siva then took the form of a learned brahmin and came to Manikkavachagar’s hut. He told Manikkavachagar that he had come to learn the Tiruvachakam hymns from him and asked Manikkavachagar to recite them all while he wrote down the words. When Manikkavachagar had completed his recitation, and Siva had written everything down, Siva asked him to compose another work, the Tirukovai, which would express the journey towards Siva in the form of a poem whose superficial theme was the love between man and woman. Manikkavachagar composed this second work on the spot, and Siva wrote it all down. Siva disappeared, taking the poems with him. Manikkavachagar then realised that it was Siva himself who had come to make a record of his poems. Siva, meanwhile, took the poems to his heavenly realm and read them out to all the assembled gods. At the end of Tirukovai he wrote: ‘This work, spoken aloud by the true devotee Vadavurar [Manikkavachagar], is written in the hand of him who dances in the Golden Hall.’ Siva then placed the whole manuscript on the steps outside the inner shrine of the Chidambaram Temple, where it was found the next day when the priests unlocked the temple and went in to perform their morning rituals. They realised immediately that Siva had left this manuscript there for them to read. They went through the work, and when the end was reached, they read the portion in which Siva stated that he had recorded Manikkavachagar’s words. The people of Chidambaram all came to Manikkavachagar’s house and asked him to narrate all the stories that dealt with Siva’s intervention in his life. Manikkavachagar told them the full story. Then they asked him to explain the inner significance of the poems that Siva had written down. Manikkavachagar agreed to do so in the Golden Hall itself. When he entered the Golden Hall, with all the devotees crowding around, he pointed to Siva and said, ‘He alone is the meaning of all the words’. Manikkavachagar then vanished and never reappeared. This was his final union with Siva’s feet.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 05:24:23 +0000
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