QUES ANSW DIVINE 03-2022-29 Dear friends,
These are informationcompiled as QA by me in 1998’s-2004’s and stored in my computer. They areposted by very learnt members. BEING COMPILATION THERE MAYBE ERRORS. Sincerely, R.Gopalakrishnan, 78, dated 29-03-2022 Q1 Did Sankarcharya eat meat at any time? A1 Oncesome mischief-mongers offered meat and liquor to Sankara. Sankara touched thoseitems with his right hand. The meat turned into apples and the liquor into milk. Q2 What is the legend about offering his headas a gift to a Kapalika by Sankaracharya? A2 A Kapalika came to Sankara and begged for hishead as a gift. Sankara consented andasked the Kapalika to take his head when he was alone and absorbed in meditation. TheKapalika was just aiming with a big sword to sever the head of Sankara.Padmapada, the devoted disciple of Sankara came, caught hold of the arm of the Kapalika and killed him with his knife. Padmapada was a worshipper of Lord Narasimha. LordNarasimha entered the body ofPadmapada and killed the Kapalika. Q3 What is the importance of Vara LakshiVratham? Is there any mention of it in puranas about it? A3Worshipping Goddess Lakshmi on Varalakshmi Vrata day is equivalent toworshipping Ashtalakshmi the eightgoddesses of Wealth, Earth, Learning, Love, Fame, Peace, Pleasure, andStrength. Theimportance of Varalakshmi Puja is mentioned in the Skanda Purana. It isbelieved that importance of Varalakshmi Puja was narrated to Goddess Parvati byLord Shiva. GoddessParvati wanted to know about a Vrata that is highly beneficial to a woman,which will help her lead a happy and prosperous life on earth. Lord Shiva then mentioned aboutthe Varamahalakshmi Vratam. Q4What is said to be the origin of Godavari? A4 TheBrahma Purana also describes several other tirthas. Most of these are on the banks of the river Goutami Ganga.This is now identified as the riverGodavari Q5 here is aprameya temple? A5 Dodda Malur , as it is callednow, is about 5 kms from Channapattana on Mysore-Bangalore highway. It is a form of Vishnu in the formof Aprame-ya and wandered in the village.TheCholas ruled over Karnataka for about hundred years during the eleventh century AD. During this shortperiod they made this area (a line fromKolar, Bangalore, Mysore, Kollegal upto Satyamangala) a mini Chola country. They practically dotted thisarea with small Chola temples and usedTamil language script for their official records. They also gave new names to our towns andagraharas with Chola titles. Thus they Cholanised this Karnataka area. This is how a country could be conquered culturally and the Cholas knew thissecret. Rajaraja Chola, the greatest king of Choladynasty who built the tallest Tanjore temple, had conquered this part ofKarnataka. His General, who was passing through this area,suddenly stopped here at Manalur (now Malur). He noticed that it was a sacred place made so by the famous river Kanva and naturally he made it anagrahara. An agrahara is a villagegiven to the Vedic Brahmanas. He gavethe village new names Jayagondachola Vinnagar and Nagirilicholapura, both based upon Cholaroyal titles. He handedover the entire village to SrivaishnavaBrahmanas and carved this Tamilrecord on the walls of the temple he built. Actually,he built two temples, one for Siva(Arkeshvara) and the other for Vishnu (Aprameya) and gave large grants for their maintenance.Thus Periya (Dodda) Malur, which was onthe ancient highway, became a prosperous commercial, administrative andreligious town. Aprameya temple was built around 1000 AD(precisely a thousand years ago). The garbhagriha has retained its originalityof the Chola period. But itsMandapa with tall pillars were added during Vijayanagara period when the templewas repaired and reconstructed. The Prakara was also added with smaller shrines for SrivaishnavaAlwars likeNammalwar, Vedanta Desika, Ramanujacharya etc. The consort of Aprameyanamed Aravindadevi has a small shrinebuilt during Vijaynagar period. There are some Hoysala pillars and sculptures in the temple. There isa granite sculpture of the image of Vishnu at the Prakara behind the sanctum. It is of a differentstyle and looks like a post Vijayanagarasculpture. It is saidthat fearing Muslim invasion, the original Vishnu image was shifted to a safe place. Later, it wasconsecrated to the original place. This story has no historical basis. The four-handed image of Vishnu is four- and-a-half feet tall and is in a typical Chola style. Malur Aprameya being the family deity of many of the families who have left the village andgone to different parts of India andabroad visit this temple whenever they pass by this side or on special occasions. Thus they have emotionalattachments to Aprameya. ThePalegars of Channapattana, particularly Jagadevaraya, was a patron of this temple. The stone entrance and thegopura was renovated and rebuilt in 17thcentury AD during the Palegar period. There are two stone images which are now kept near theinner entrance. These are the two devotees, Ramadasa and his wifeManchilakshmi. They were the patrons of this temple. Ramadasa in standingposition is shown in the attitude of devotion with folded hands. Unfortunately,visitors have no opportunity of knowingthis devotee. At least a label should be put up and kept in a prominent place. Another great attraction of this temple isthe image of Balakrishna holding a lumpof butter (Ambegalu Benne Krishna). This blackstone small image is very elegant and people who have noissues specially pray to this deity.Thus Ambegalu Krishna is now famous as Santanagopala Krishna also. There is a folk tale regarding thisimage. The Maharajaof Mysore (exact name not known)impressed by this beautiful image took it to his Palace in Mysore. Somedays later the Maharaja was afflicted with terrible itching and the Palace priest told him that it was due to disturbing Krishna from his original place. Immediately, he returned the image to Dodda Malur temple. According to another version, the Mysore Palace got burnt and hence the Maharajareturned the image of Krishna. The great saint Purandaradasa visited thistemple and getting inspired from the beautiful idol of Krishna composed thefamous song ‘Jagadoddharana Adisidaleshoda’. The stone mantapa opposite thetemple is called Purandaradasa mantapa where he composed and sang this song. In fact a niche at the parapet of the roofof the prakara has a beautiful stucco image of Purandaradasa with his tamburisinging the song in front of the Balakrishna . Thus this story is authenticatedby this stucco sculpture. There isanother equally important tradition about this temple. The great Karnataka JuristVijnaneshwara (12th century) wrote a commentary on Yajnavalkya Smriti, called Mitaksharawhich is followed even now. It isbelieved that he wrote this work in Dodda Malur. Another feather in the cap of this ancient town. Urbanattraction has pushed this ancient agrahara into an ordinary village. N. Ramanuja’s grandfather Ramaswamy and fatherNarayanaswami Iyengar are stillremembered by the elders of the temple referring to the social and religious activities ofthese two great men. That is how history remembers people who havedone some good to society. Ramaswamy named his son as Aprameya after this deity and Aprameya became alegend in NIE circles. Malur isslowly changing; country tiles are replaced by Mangalore tiles, RCC buildingsare coming up. But still the agrahara maintains a charm of its own and God Aprameya is a silent witnessto these cha-nges for the past 1000years. Q6 What is Pithru Gadha? A6 The Pithrus will always wishfor some man to be born in their family who will do sradham for them in GayaSeersham and Akshaya vatam. My note- Hope members understand theimportance of Gayasrardha. Q7 Which are all suitable for use in sraadha? A7 Wheat, Paddy, Barley , Gingelly , garden pea, mustard , Paryangu (?) , Govidhara (?)and Avarai (lab lab beans) are suitable for the Sradha. Q8 Do Black gram is essential for sraadha? A8Without black gram Sradha cannot be performed. -- 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]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/724719706.1087003.1648563787272%40mail.yahoo.com.
