CHENGANNUR DEVI PART 1 Dear friends,
This posting is about ChengannurDevi temple. Chengannur is in the ALLEPPY DISTRICT of Kerala State. The placeis 12 KMs after Pandalam, my home, and on the way to Kottayam in the MainCentral Road or shortly MC Road. It is the first road connectingimportant places in the Trivandrum Kottayam route. Now we have regular andfrequent buses from Chengannur railway station itself to Sabarimala during theMandalam and Makara vilakku period. Either on the way or on return 90% of devotees worship in Chengannur Devitemple without fail. There is a saranam “Chengannur Devi Saranam Ponnayyappa”recited by devotees from southern side. I have been to the temple oneyear back while in home, taking my first grandson to Sabarimalai by my son inlaw. This posting is based on the EITHYAMALAby Kottaratthil Sankunni Variar, keeping it as skeleton in my style. The temple has one speciality forthe SANCTUM. Theidol of Lord Siva is facing east and within the same sanctum idol of Devi isfacing west. Thecircular sanctum has a separation in the middle with a door in the southernside.Through this door the priests will be going to either side. Chengannur is one of theimportant temples on the banks of the river Pampa. The temple is a large one. SUDDHAM AND AACHARAM is veryimportant to the temple. Temples like Tirumanthan kunnu,Panayannar kavu, Kodungallur and Chengannur though have both Siva and Parvathi,and Devi has more fame. The other way temples like Kottayam Tirunakkara,Ettumanoor, Vaikkam, Trichur etc. have more fame for Deva. In Kottarakkara, it is neitherfor Deva or Devi , but for their son Vigneswara. I am continuing. The posting is in parts sincemoderator suggested around 80 lines writings are preferred Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 17-06-2021 1. Mythology about the area The marriage of Parvathi withLord Siva was getting celebrated. This was at Mount Himavan. Due to assembly oflarge number of Gods and sages it was felt the Himalaya may sink down. To balance the weight sageAgasthya was requested for going to the southern side of Pampa River in theSonadri Hill. He agreed but expressed his disappointment of not able to witnessthe marriage. Lord BRAHMA assured him, he need not worry. It will be shown tohim. Sage Agasthia came to Sonadri and sat with meditation. After the marriage, Lord Sivacame with Parvathi to this area. Along with Brahma, Vishnu and Indra also came. Pravathi had her Rithu ( menses) here and the RITHUSANTHI KALYANAM wasdone with all pomp. Agasthia got pleased on seeing itas witnessing marriage. After that everybody left. The place remained for MANY MANY CENTAURIES like that. It continued as a hillwith full of trees and bushes. 2. Vanjippuzha thampuran. Parasurama brought Brahmins fromthe North to function as priests in the temples of Kerala constructed and deityinstalled by him. They settled in 64 gramams (Villages) from North to South ofKerala. One of the gramamswas the present Chengannur. The nampoothri family settled at Chengannur waswith name THAZHAMON. They are the thanthries forChengannur temple even today. (Thanthri- A high ranking priest something like aPrincipal of a college). While I was studying in collegeduring 1964’s also Chengannur was a Taluk and my native was a village in it.The location of my house is told as Kaipuzha muri in the subregistrar documents. The forest was cleared and thehead of the place was Vanjippuzhathampuran before centuries. He had some separate properties which he hadgiven for lease to Nayanaru pillai for cultivation. He was employing somekurathi women for work in that area. One day a kuratthi thought ofsharpening her sickle on a stone seennear. The moment she started sharpen, blood started to flow out. Kuratthi got feared and ran to Nayanrupillai.Information was send sent to Vanjippuzha thampuran. He came with many including Thazhamon Potti. Thazamon Potti went on prayer fora moment and said- This is not ordinary granite piece. It is a swayambhoo Siva lingam.Immediate neivedyam has to be offered otherwise the sivalingam may disappear. To stop the bleeding ghee has tobe poured on it (Neyyatal) along with 36 Para paddy as Dhara. In a short time, all things werearranged, neivedyam performed, dhara conducted. Neyyatal was done. Blood oozingout disappeared. All started discussing construction of a temple. At this juncture Thazhamon Potti added- I feel the presence of Devi also here. Sowhile constructing temple the sanctum should have provision of installing aDevi idol also. 3. Uliyannur Perumthachhan… By divine order to say, UliyannurPerumthachhan came that way. He was consulted by all for giving charthu (Planand other information) for the temple construction. Uliyannur Perumthachhan was the most famouscarpenter of that period. Accordingly he gave charthu forsanctum, thidappalli, prakaram and koothambalam. This koothambalam was in theform of Kukkudandam. After remaining three days, he said, local workers would finish the works and he left telling after months he will comeagain. 4. Perumthacchan himself constructs Kootthambalam. After three months, whenPerumthachhan came almost all works had completed, except Koothambalam. Thelocal carpenters could not make it. Perumthachhan himself started and alongwith local carpenters completed its work. 5. Perumthachhan located a position, where Devi idol could be there. While all works were completed,Perumthachhan was asked to make an idolof Devi. Perumthachhan circumbulated in the outer prakaram, In the vayukon (air angle) hehalted at a place and asked to dig and remove earth for a few feet there.What a wonder- a beautiful Devi idol was found buried. Cleaning with hand etc.,it was taken out without damage. In a good Muhurtha, idols wereinstalled. The day to day schedules were arranged. Mandalam and Makara vilakku are verycrowded period in the temple. Rules opening temple, nirmalyam, pooja, sreebalai etc. were worked out forregular worship. The temple festival is for 28days from Tiruvathirain Dhanu month- a speciality with Chengannur temple. Most temples have only 10 days. Sabarimala period. Of course it isduring mandalm the festival falls. As the days rolled fame of the temple increased.People started to come from far and near. Chengannur is a rich temple of Keralabigger in size. About half a KM interior from MC road the temple is located .An arch is there in the connecting road about Chengannur Mahadevartemple. The temple is very famous forTiruppoottharattu of Devi (Bath after menses). I will continue in next posting.This posting has about 110 lines -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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