Temple Trails Tamil Nadu : Golu at Mylai Karpagambal Temple

Golu at Mylai Karpagambal Temple


After the last year's visit to this temple for Golu, I was very keen to go there this year also

The temple was decorated beautifully with lights and did not look very crowded mainly because the Golu was spread in different parts and the crowd was scattered.

I prayed at the Ganapathi and Murugan sannidhi and had a look at the small mandapam opposite the Murugan sannidhi on my right in front of the main Golu mandapam. This had Sivan in penance in Himalayas with all the rishis in the front. Ganges was falling from Sivan's head.

There was huge kolam made out of various food ingredients right from raw rice to pulses, dhaniya, sago, jaggery and even red chillies and tamarind. It was looking very beautiful.

A closer view of the food grains on the kolam

I also heard that a new kolam is being drawn here everyday with different items. Only wish that I had the time to visit on all days.

I proceeeded to the main Golu mandapam and yesterday's alangaram was Ambal on Rishaba vahanam. As usual the decoration was beautiful and Ambal looked majestic with Lakshmi and Saraswathi on either side. I went around the deity to have a look at the pinnal alangaram - it was a very cute plait with flowers and cashews on each knot of the plait!

Next was the mandapam on the left side of Murugan sannidhi, right side of Dwajasthambam. A photograph of the moolasthanam of this temple with a huge rangoli of Samhara Bhairavar  with his consort. See the weapons in his hands and his dog vahanam!

On the left side of the Dwajasthambam, near the passage to Karpagambal sannidhi was the Golu with dolls arranged in seven steps.

There were also many Ganapathis arranged on a table. The ratham and procession looked very cute. There were many dolls kept on floor level and I liked the Santhanagopalakrishnan and the wedding set best!

I then proceeded to Karpagambal sannidhi. Though the queue was long, it moved quite fast and darshan was great! Next was Kapaleeswarar sannidhi. The Lingam looked majestic as usual and crowd was quite less here.

I had the chance to get chakrapongal prasadam and while washing the hands noticed the green light in the garden near the main mandapam. This had plants for various nakshatrams with the plants marked with their names and the star they represent. 

 


I went inside the main golu mandapam once again to have one last look at the Ambal in rishaba vahanam before leaving.

Though the Golu was definitely not as grand and impressive as last year, it was quite nice and different.

Temple Trails Tamil Nadu : Hridyaaleeswarar Temple

Tirunindravur Hridyaaleeswarar Temple

The next temple we visited was Hridyaaleeswarar Temple. Both the Bhaktavatsala Perumal Temple and Hridyaaleeswarar Temple are about 1500 years old. In those days the kings built temples for both Sivan and Vishnu nearby.

The legend of Hridyaaleeswarar temple is that Poosalar Nayanar, one of the 63 Nayanars wished to build a temple for Lord Shiva. As he did not have funds to build a temple, he built a temple in his heart for Lord Shiva. It was not a rough structure, but a detailed one, covering all aspects of a Sivan temple. He also fixed a date for the kumbabishekam of the temple. Pallava king Rajasimha had built a temple for Lord Shiva in Kanchipuram during this time and he fixed a date for kumbabishekam which happened to be the same day as the Poosalar’s heart temple’s kumbabishekam day. On the earlier night, Lord Shiva came in the king’s dream to tell him that he cannot come for his temple kumbabishekam as he has to be present for Poosalar’s temple kumbabishekam. The king went in search of Poosalar and was shocked to find that Poosalar had built a temple in his heart for the Lord. He got a detailed description of the heart temple from Poosalar and built a temple accordingly. This temple is the Hridyaaleeswarar temple – Hridya meaning heart. To this day people pray here for cure for their heart ailments. This is again a huge temple.

As soon as we entered we prayed to Lakshmi Ganapathy and then proceeded to Lord Shiva’s sannidhi. This temple was fairly crowded, but most of the crowd seemed to be part of a group that had come for some film shooting. The imposing dwajasthambam was there with Nandi in front of it facing the Lord.

Sivan sannidhi was more like a hall with a couple steps leading to the Lord’s sannidhi and with Ambal on our right side. We first went to the Lord’s sannidhi and prayed there. Lingam is a fair size, neither too big, nor too small. Poosalar Nayanar was sitting in front of his Lord in the form of a statue. We prayed to the Hridyaaleeswarar to take care of any heart ailments and then got down to go to Ambal Sannidhi. Ambal alangaram was minimal but she was looking very beautiful in a nine yards sari. The name of the Goddess is Maragathaambigai.

Towards right side of the Siva Linga is the Navagraha sannidhi. We did a few pradakishnams around the nine planets. Just in front of the Navagraha, we could see a statue of Rajasimha, the Pallava king who built this temple for Poosalar. The ceiling of the inner prakaram was a visual treat with very beautiful paintings.

Directly behind Hridayaaleeswarar sannidhi on the left side was Ganapathi and on the right side was Murugan with Valli Deivanai. We also saw the idols of 63 Nayanmars and of course Natarajar and Sivagami Ammai. As we completed the pradakshinam, Bhairavar was on the left corner and on two sides of the entrance door were Chandran and Suryan. We came out to do a pradakshinam of the outer prakaram which was an open space. As we completed the pradakshinam we understood that the inner prakaram - the hall were all the above sannidhis were was in the form of Gajaprishtam – back of an elephant in sitting posture. Satisfied with the darshan we had, we proceeded to have a breakfast break at our friend Bhavani’s place.