Navaratri 2014 - Day 2

Sringeri Peedam Saradhambal Temple

Not sure where to go, I started with Sringeri Peedam Saradhambal Temple in T.Nagar. I was greeted by lovely devotional music on key board with accompaniments. It was fairly crowded but I could have a peaceful darshan of Pillayar with velli kavacham. Ambal looked resplendent with gold kavacham, piraichandran in her crown, and nandi in front of her. Adi Sankaracharyar in the third sannidhi gave a lot of peace as usual. The other Ambal was also decorated in a very beautiful mandapam and I tried my luck with the archakar about taking a photo of this ambal in the mandapam. He point blank said "endha ambalayum photo edukkakoodathu". I satisfied myself with a photo each of the gopuram and programme list.

Mylai Karpagambal Temple

Bypassing the Tirupathi Devasathana Perumal temple, I went to Mylapore as I was very keen to have darshan of Karpagambal on Friday. 

As I usually do, I entered from the dwajasthambam side entrance and was zapped by the queue for special entrance at Ambal sannidhi. 

Not very confident of Ambal darshan, I started clicking the simple golus (there were two sets). 

I then went around crossing Poompavai sannidhi towards the stala viruksham (punnai maram) and the Goddess worshipping the Lord in the form of a peahen which is why this temple and the area is called Mylai. The crowd was mostly near the main deities and otherwise scattered all over the temple which can hold a very huge crowd! There was a very nice dance performance by a group of four girls. I stood and watched it for a few minutes and proceeded further crossing Navagraham, Annamalayar, Unnamulaiamman and Pillayar. 

The vasantha mandapam was beautifully decorated with the urchava Ambal in the centre.

Today was Sarawathi alangaaram. Ambal was holding a veena on her lap and giving darshan to one and all.

On either side were Lakshmi and Saraswathi. There was also a white metal statue of Ambal worshipping the Shivalinga nearby. 

I circumambulated around the urchavar and was mesmerised by the jadai alangaram of Ambal. It was so beautiful that I went on clicking the camera!

As I moved further, I could see many people gathered around the smaller mandapam. I peeped in to see a small golu of Kailasam with the Lord and all the rishis praying to him. I have seen this in one of the earlier golus too. The fascinating thing there was the vegetable kolam, It was still in progress with the last touches with curry leaves, but it generally looked complete. One could see all veggies there either in full or cut pieces. The centre piece was a broccoli and peeled small onions formed a small part. It was so cute to see the round carrot slices forming a border to neatly shredded cabbage! Long snake gourds formed borders too!

After spending a long time, I noticed that there was one more golu on the opposite mandapam. I wanted to have a glimpse of my favourite Singaravelar with his consorts before looking at this golu. After a peaceful darshan at Murugan sannidhi, I went to the smaller mandapam which had the story of River Kaveri giving way to Sundarar when he wanted to reach Thiruvarur to have darshan of the Lord. A small water body was created with sliding sand on either side at the end of which was a photo of the Lord.

 There was a detailed description of this episode in a banner with a google map indicating where Kaveri gave way to the Lord's devotee.

Completing all this, I tried my luck at Ambal sannidhi where the crowd for special darshan was quite reduced by then. One thing I did not realise that the special darshan queue could have formed a line inside! With the result, I ended up standing almost behind the sanctum! But the long wait was worth it. Earlier whenever I have been to the temple on a Friday, I have seen the Goddess in nine yards sari and decked with a lot of jewellery including kaasu malai. Today the Goddess was very different, like a young girl - she was in the form of Bala Thiripurasundari with a long skirt and top. Of course she was as beautiful and full of grace as usual and I had a wonderful darshan. I came out and went to see Lord Kapaleeswarar. This sannidhi was a little less crowded than Ambal sannidhi. I went around seeing the goshta deivangal - Durgai, looking beautiful, Santha Lingothbhavar, Dakshinamoorthy and Pillayar and simultaneously on my left were Natarajar, Sivakamasundari, Arupathimoovar - urchavar as well as presiding deities, Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswathi, two more Shivalingams, Bhairavar, Veerabathirar and finally the urchavamoorthy of Karapagambal. Then I stopped for a minute - Somaskandar was beautifully decorated with flowers and I had to search a bit for the skandar there!

By this time Ranga had called a couple of times, so I rushed out missing Navagraha darshan and Saneeswarar sannidhi.

Outside I managed to click a few golu bommai shops!