KALPATTHIVISWANATHA SWAMY TEMPLE Dear friends,
After visitingGuruvayoor temple, we came back to Palghat in the afternoon and took rest. Started temple visits in theevening. In the evening my first visit was to Viswanatha Swamy Temple atKalpatthi, Palakkad. Itis told, if one is not able to visit Banaras, visit Palghat KalpatthiViswanatha sway temple, identical to Kasi Viswanatha swamy temple. The temple is by the side of Nila River. The temple isin a corner, 18 steps one has to get down from the main road to reach thetemple. As expected, the temple appeared very old, in the counter tickets aregiven for different offerings, offering items are given from the temple itself. When I wasin the temple, a VIP with followers from some company/office came and was givendue respect and priority. There was no crowd in the temple other than a fewlocal people. The rest room is available only after getting down alot of steps down, towards the Nila River, and it is high time, rest room isavailable at temple level. Nila is also with lot of water reeds. After worship during deeparadha andperforming archana, we started to Manappullikavu, again after visiting close Prasanna Vinayagar temple.It was not noted when we concentrated getting down the steps without falling toViswanathaswamy temple. Hand rails provided helped a lot for climbing up andgetting down. I assume from appearance and Tamil talk, Gurukkals are priests in thetemple. Not Nampoothiries. If I am wrong kindly correct me. I had a look in to famous kalpathi chariot. There is a notice chithabhasmamam ( ashes ofthe dead ) should not be emptied near the ghats, which indicate many empty ashes of the dead in Nila river, just like inGanges. I think it isappropriate to add some more information on Kalpathi temple >From Wikipedia,the free encyclopedia Sri Visalakshi Sametha Sri Viswanathaswamy temple[1],popularly known as Kasi Viswanathaswamy Temple or locally as kundukovil is afamous Hindu temple located in the Kalpathy village of Palakkad in Kerala,India. It is the site of the annual Kalpathi Ratholsavam which is one of themost famous temple festivals of Kerala. This ancient temple nestles by thebanks of the serene Kalpathyriver (Nila Nadhi). Dedicated to Lord Siva and his consortVisalakshi (another name for Parvati), it dates back to early fifteenthcentury. The similarity to the Varanasi Kashi Viswanatha temple on the banks ofGanges is responsible for the moniker kasiyil pakuthi kalpathy and the name DakshinaKashi associated with this temple. The Temple is surrounded by the four TamilBrahmin agraharams or traditional villages: New Kalpathy, Old Kalpathy,Chathapuram and Govindarajapuram. Antiquity andhistory There is an inscription in kolezhuthu on a stone slabplaced in front of the temple between the flag staff and the Nandi Mandapam,outside the temple, but within the temple courtyard. This inscription records some endowments made byone Ittikombi Achan, member of the Royal family of Palakkad in Malayalam Era600 [1424–25 AD]. Evidently the temple must have been foundedearlier than that. The villagers, however, claim that the temple wasconsecrated at the instance of one Lakshmi Ammal, a Brahmin wife of Venkitanarayanaiyer ofKollengode,. They are reported to have brought the Siva Lingam fromKasi (Varanasi) during one of her visits to that holy place and desired toconstruct a temple and install the Lingam. On reaching Kalpathy, she along with her husband and withthe help of the then King of Palakkad Installed the Siva Lingam in Kalpathy andthe idol is very powerful in blessing all, by showering allprosperities especially to Business community. The temple is on the banks ofNila River. Villagersbelieve that she approached the then Raja (Prince) of Palakkad with thisrequest, who had readily agreed and constructed the temple. It isalso said that Lakshmi Ammal had given the Prince 1320 gold coins and entrustedhim with the responsibility of managing the temple affairs. A record to this effect kept onthe palm leaves is believed to have been lost during the time of oneSomasundara Kurukkal, who was the priest of the temple at that time.According to depositions by Sri Somasundara Kurukkal, it is believed that thePrince who Lakshmi Ammal approached was Ittilkombi Achan. Sri SomasundaraKurukkal has also confirmed that the Prince had entrusted the management of the temple to hisdescendants belonging to the Valia Konikkal Madom. The Prince hadalso donated land for the upkeep and maintenance of the temple. The lands set apart for thistemple came to be made inam or revenue-free by him and this was allowed to becontinued as revenue free by the subsequent rulers, Tipu Sultan and later bythe British Government. Even today the management of the templecontinues to be in the hands of the Trustee, a descendant of the erstwhileprincely family. Lakshmi Ammal also constructed three other temples in nearbyKollengode, Koduvayur and Pokkunni. Naturally she installed lingams broughtfrom Varanasi . Theyare Brahmin ( in kollengode) Ksahtriya ( Koduvayur) Sudra ( Pokkunni inKollengode). The land reforms of the Government of recent times haddeprived the temple of the income from these lands. The Temple at present is being run by the offerings ofthe devotees and vazhipadu collections. The first face of theinscription on the granite slab in front of the Temple contains the details ofthe lands given as gift to the temple with the four boundaries thereof. Theagraharam sites of the four streets of Old Kalpathy, New Kalpathy, Chathapuramand Govindarajapuram are all included within the boundaries of the lands given,as described in the stone inscription. It is clear from this that the Brahminhouses in the four agraharams were in existence on the date of the giftmentioned in the stone inscription. Structurallocation and layout The temple issituated at the bottom of eighteen steps leading from the eastern Gopuram. In the south-west direction of the temple issituated the temple of Sri Lakshminarayana Perumal of Old Kalpathy Village andPrasanna Maha Ganapathy of Chathapuram village, in the east the KshipraprasadaMaha Ganapathi Temple of Pandhrandaam Teruvu and the Manthakara Maha GanapathiTemple of New Kalpathy village and in the east-west direction Sri VaradarajaPerumal of Govindarajapuram village. In the eastern direction at a distance of a kilometeris located the Chokkanathar temple of Chokkanathapuram village. On the right side while enteringthe temple, there are two banyan trees. The Serpent Gods [nagaprathishta] areconsecrated beneath the first banyan tree, which is also the"sthala Vriksham". Pooja is performed for this tree and nagaprathishta, treating it as "Vishnu Amsom". The flag staff (Kodimaram) is erected in front of thetemple. The stone slab describing the land given to the temple etc. isinstalled behind the flag mast. Close to the stone slab is the Bhadralingam andin front of it the Gnana Nandikeswarar, facing Sri Viswanathaswamy. The eightsides of the prakaram(closed precincts of a temple) inside the Temple belongsto Indra, Agni, Yama, Niruruthi, Varuna, Vayu, Kubera, and Eesanan. The idol of Sri Viswanathaswamy is situated in the direction of Kuberafacing east and close to this Sri Visalakshi facing south. In front of SriViswanathaswamy, Nandikeswarar appears in three forms. The three forms symboliseAathmathathwam, Vidyathathwam and Sivathathwam. The moolavar in this temple isSri Viswanathaswami. Pooja Vidhi(Religious Services) The idols of Sri Viswanathaswamy and Sri Visalakshiare attached to the pedestals by Ashtabandhanam, a mixture of eight elementsthat help fix the idol to the peetham or base. The Viswanathaswamy idol is a Bana Lingam. The Banalingam extends four carpenter's angul (inch) higher than the pedestal.The circumference at the level of the pedestal may be about eight angul(inches).The Vishalakshi idol stands twenty four inches above the pedestal up to the topof the crown. Pooja intemples are of two types: aathmartham and parartham. The two differ in the sankalpam. In the former, thesankalpam will be in the name of yajamana of the temple i.e. udamasthan orowner. In the latter the sankalpam will be in the name of all people. In theSri Viswanathaswamy temple, the pooja performed is aathmartham. The pooja in the temple is conducted on the pattern of the poojaheld in the Mayuranathar Temple at Mayavaram. Sri Subramania Kurukkal of Mayavaram was the firstpoojakar (priest). The pooja is conducted accordingto the Tamil Agama. There are 28 types of Agamas. The pooja in this temple isbeing followed according to Kamikagamam. Pooja is conducted fourtimes a day: 5:45AM Usha Pooja, 9:45 AM Uchikala Pooja, 5:45 PM Deeparadhana,and 7:45 PM Ardhajama Pooja. The Ardhajama pooja is most important. It includesdhara and Abhishekam by milk daily. PerformingUmamaheswara Pooja is said to be of great value because both Lord Siva andGoddess Parvathy are said to be pleased by the Pooja if properly performed. Recent news According to sastras, renovation and Kumbhabhishekhamof temples are to be conducted once in twelve years in order to enhance thedivine power of the Lord. The last Jeernodharanam and Kumbhabhishekham of thistemple were conducted in 1956 and 1981, respectively. Thus, it has been morethan 30 years since major repairs have been undertaken. The temple structure including the Garbhagrihams(sanctum sanctorum) has developed extensive damages and they require immediateattention to prevent further damages. Even though efforts were on forundertaking the repair works for the last several years, due to some reason orother they have not yielded the desired result. Now some serious efforts are onto undertake the work of Jeernodharanam to be followed by Maha Kumbhabhishekamritual in order to enhance the divine power of the Lord. Sri K. Krishnan Embrandiri, Charactered Engineer and arenowned Temple Architect well-versed in vasthu shastras, was entrusted withthe work of preparing the Renovation Project. He has prepared the estimates forthe civil works connected with the Development/Renovation Project. Based on theproject report of civil works involved and taking into consideration theexpenditure involved for conducting the vedic rituals, veda parayanam, culturalevents etc., an estimate of about 100 lakhs (10 million) Rupees has beenprepared. The Departmentof Tourism of the Kerala Government recently launched a Heritage Protectionproject at Kalpathy to preserve not only this magnificent temple, but also theBrahmin agraharam around it. -- 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/1677496584.2634022.1652652443172%40mail.yahoo.com.
