Navaratri 2014 - Day 3

I restricted my temple visit to a local one within walkable distance today due to obvious reasons. I have been thinking for some time that I must write about this temple so close to my place and only today the Goddess blessed me with the opportunity!

Kalasathamman Temple aka Kalachathamman Temple:

In the ten years I have been in this area, with regret I admit that I can count on my fingers the number of times I have been to this temple. Let's hope it is remedied now!

The temple was not much crowded as the 20-odd people were getting ready to attend a dance performance as part of Navaratri urchavam. I bought archanai things and entered the temple and the first thing I noticed was a very cute golu. Deciding to have darshan of the Goddess first, I entered the sanctum. What a darshan it was! Out of the four Goddesses in the sanctum sanctorum, Kalachathamman was in Kula Sundari alangaram with chandhana kaapu, dressed in green and gold and a pirai chandran on the left side of her crown. The other three Goddesses were with velli kavacham.

All these years I have been curious about the name of the Goddess and today finally I picked up courage to ask the kurukkal the meaning. It was a very simple one, that one of the first few settlers in this area were from Calcutta and hence named the Goddess Kalkatta amman which later changed to the present name.

I also came to know that the names of Goddesses are Mandhaveliamman, Kalachathamman, Gangaiamman and Koothalamman. These four Goddesses are the graama devathaigal, guarding this village. I was very sure that they will not allow me to photograph the main deities, so I just asked if I can click the golu. On receiving a nod, I tried my luck further asking if I can take a photo of the Mahakali amman opposite the temple. The gurukkal said an emphatic ‘no’ to this.

Clicking the golu and a beautiful lamp in its front, I came out to pray to Mahakali. Since this is on an open area with no roof, I have seen this Goddess every time I cross this road. My earlier impression of her karunai hit me once again. When I was young, I used to be scared by huge deities like Sarangapani in Kumbakonam. This Goddess despite her size of about 7-8 feet in sitting posture always tempted me to go near and put my head on her lap. This is despite her fearful appearance with weapons because her paarvai is full of karunai. She is surrounded by statues of six men holding different musical instruments. There is also a smaller Kali Amman in a standing posture in front of her.

I went to have a glimpse of the dance performance by the girls before leaving for home. I never got around having darshan of Pillayar whose sannidhi is behind the main deity to her right as it was quite dark there. The alangaram of Kalachathamman was so beautiful today, that I hope to visit her atleast once or twice again during Navaratri!

I also happened to visit Vrindha's golu in C block. Here are some pictures of her grand golu!