Aadi Thiruvizha

Aadi is the fourth month in the Tamil calendar. Usually weddings do not take place in this month, the real reason behind this is that if a woman conceives in this month, the baby will be born in the Tamil month of Chithirai (April 14 – May 14), the hottest period in Tamil Nadu. Hence the month of Aadi was dedicated to worship of Goddess – Amman.

It is a great sight to see all Amman temples decorated this month with various functions and rituals like pongal, maavilakku and theemidhi taking place widely.

All the Fridays of this month are even more auspicious with special poojas and alangarams to the Goddess in all the temples in Tamil Nadu.

Varalakshmi Vratham, a special pooja by the ladies for the welfare of their husband falls on one of the Fridays of Aadi.

The 18th day of Aadi is called Aadi perukku with fresh water flow into river Cauvery. It is a great celebration in the regions where Cauvery flows, but even people in other towns and cities follow the thanksgiving to Cauvery with special prayers and grand feast with different mixed rice like jaggery rice, tamarind rice, coconut rice, lemon rice, aviyal and vadaam.

Aadi Krithigai is special for Lord Murugan and special prayers including kavadi take place in all Murugan temples not only in India, but even in countries like Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka.

Aadi Pooram is special for Aandal and valaikaapu takes place in Amman temples on this day.

Aadi Amavasya is important and even people who do not follow the rituals to be done on other Amavasyas, do it on this day.

During the month of Aadi, the clothes shops, especially the ones selling pattu saris saw a sharp drop in their sales as the wedding season begins in full swing only in Aavani, the month after Aadi. But this is an old story now. About 8 years ago these shops started a 50% discount sale in the month of Aadi. This developed so well that nowadays, the shops seem to be more crowded in the month of Aadi than the others.

This is applicable not only to clothes and jewellery

but also electronics

and even footwear


                                  

With the result Aadi is not only Bhakti Thiruvizha but also a Shopping Thiruvizha in Tamil Nadu!

Temple visit: Kandhazheeswarar temple

Kandhazheeswarar temple, Kundrathur

As soon as we reached Kundrathur bus stand, we noticed this temple and the Thiruvooraga Perumal temple next to each other.

We were under the impression that this Sivan temple is the Rahu Sthalam of the Navagraha sthalams in Chennai and were very keen to visit it. We entered the temple and first saw the board Nagaimuga Valli sametha Kandhazheeswarar Thirukovil.(நகைமுக வல்லி சமேத கந்தழீஸ்வரர் திருக்கோவில்)  I liked the name Nagaimuga Valli - smiling faced Valli - very much. We could see the Ambal directly in front of us. We went further inside and the Siva lingam was on the left side. It is a very huge lingam but the alangaram was minimal with just a flower on top and a veshti on aavudayar. (ஆவுடையார்)

We asked the kurukkal about the history and he said that this temple is also 1100 years old and built by Kulothungan. Karikala chozhan  is also said to have done a lot for this temple. He showed us the carvings of the symbols of Cheras, Chozhas, Pandyas namely, bow & arrow, tiger and fish on the ceiling indicating that all of them have contributed to this temple. The kurukkal also clarified that this is not the Rahu Sthalam temple and that was elsewhere in the same area.

On either side of the Siva lingam, we could see Ganapathy and Valli Deivanai Sametha Murugan. On the left side of the Siva lingam was the Nagai muga Valli Ambal.  Again, Ambal had very little alangaram with just a single flower on her crown and wearing a simple red sari but with a smiling face just as her name suggests. The Nandhi in front of the Lord was looking very cute with a metallic bell around his neck.

Usually at Sivan temples we can see the Lingam from the entrance whereas at this temple in front of the Lingam there is a wall with a small hole in it. When we came out and completed our pradakshinam, we noticed that there was another slightly bigger Nandhi in front of the bali peedam facing the Siva lingam beyond the wall and we had a glimpse of the Lingam again through the hole. The other sannidhis in this temple were only Dakshinamoorthy and Durgai and we were surprised to notice that there was no Navagraha sannidhi here.