Our car driver was very happy to take us to visit Patteeswaram during rahu kaalam as rahu kaalam is the best time to visit Durgai. Little he knew that we were scared of crowds! This again is a massive temple, quite ancient. The main deity is Lord Shiva – Thenupureeswarar. I have a special love for this Lord as he has come in my dream once!
Goddess is Gnanambikai. Of course Patteeswaram Durgai is quite famous, what a majestic deity. Luckily I had visited this temple at leisure before because this time, we could just have a glimpse of Durgai. We are quite worried that we will lose each other in the crowd until we reached the main temple behind. There must have been atleast 600-700 people near Durgai sannidhi with the queue reaching upto the main temple. We had to satisfy ourselves with just the glimpse and proceeded to the main temple of Gnanambika sametha Thenupureeswarar.
The divine cow Kamadhenu’s daughter, Patti worshipped Thenupureeswarar and hence the name Patteeswaram for this place. Lord Rama also worshipped to Shiva here for dosha nivarthi after defeating Vaali.
Thenupureeswarar sannidhi was calm with only a few people and we could have a great darshan. History also says that when Thirugnanasambandar visited this temple in high summer, Lord Shiva ordered the Siva ganas to hold a muthu pandal (an umbrella like shelter made of pearls) for Thirugnanasambandar for shade. Also Lord Shiva asked Nandi to move aside for Sambandar to have quick and easy darshan. In this sannidhi Nandi is not right in front of Lord Shiva but moved to one side!
The architecture of this temple is grand. I have to mention about the stone chain (a linked chain made out of stone) that hangs from the ceiling.
Gnanmbika looked very beautiful and grace flowed from her eyes. While entering the temple, I had bought lemon malas for Durgai but we offered these malas to Gnanmbika as we could not go near Durgai sannidhi.
Outside the sannidhi of Gnanambika, on the prakaram walls, we could see illustrations of Patti worshipping Shiva and the Thirugnanasambandar episode.
We also had the opportunity of spending some time at the Durgai urchavamoorthy sannidhi where paal abishekam was being done for the urchava Durgai as it was Aadi Friday.
We came out crossing Durgai sannidhi again and had another glimpse of the beautiful Goddess.
We then proceeded to our next temple - Thiruvalanzhui
Hey Lak,
ReplyDeleteloved this piece. Your back and forth with the history and your experience comes across very neatly - a blending of the past and present. Keep it up!
lovely pictures too, especially the Durgai :)
ReplyDeleteVery informative, thanks for posting such informative content. Expecting more from you.
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