A Trip to Mysore 09 July 13 to 12 July 13
Out of the blue
materialized a trip to Mysore, always my favourite holiday spot! With
the long weekend , thanks to eid holidays, Sriram, my son in law, my two
pattanis Srinidhi and Shalini , along with my husband left for Mysore on the
afternoon of 9th.
What began as a day trip with the kids to Mysore ZOO became
an extended holiday for my husband and me.
We visited DoddaMallur on our way to Mysore around 3:30pm ,
the temple was locked. We could find a “Ayyangar” coffee shop , right close to
the temple. There we had spicy, crispy
kovalai vadais , the kind of which , I have never tasted before! At 4pm the
archakar came in and opened the sannidhis, we had very good dharshan of
Aprameya perumal, Aravindavalli thayar. To the back of the prahara is the kutty
Krishnan crawling, to whom the famous song Jaggatho Dharana is addressed, by Purandara dasar. Krishna
wears a muffler kind of dress ,the archakar tells us it is quite cold and hence
the big dress . It is also ThiruAdi Puram and Andal is also there with Krishna
all decked up.
After this we head to see the kavery sangamam at Srirangapattinam.
And after this it is the hotel to retire with kids .
The next
morning , 10th, sees us in a queue at the zoo. The kids are very
excited to see giraffes, sleeping lions
,lazy tigers of all kinds ,everything they see and read about in their story
books. They head out to Bangalore with their father and we stay back to go on a
trip to
Thondanur. (
Thonnur Kere)
The evening sees us in Parakkala mutt waiting to have darshan
of the Hayagraveevar,….. This Hayagraveevar is believed to have been given to
Ramanujar personally by Saraswathi herself in Kashmir, we await with abated
breaths to see the Lord Himself ,who doles out knowledge to His Bakthas.
After a good darshan of the Mandapa perumals in the matt we
go in to pay our respects to the jeer, who cheerfully gives us back bananas and
plenty of blessings.
Aug 11th and we head out to Nagamangalam, in
Karnataka, Mandya district. The Nagamangalam temple is huge with three sanctum
sanctoriums. As one enters Krishna with rukmini, sathyabama welcomes us to our
left, charming as ever Krishnastand s with his flute in his right hand as VenuGopala.
To the centre in the main Sanctum is Sowmyakesava perumal and
the right side is fully occupied by Lakshmi Nrisimha . The peon of the temple,
points to us the beautifully carved ceilings, which are 3-4 in number and we
see 108 conches carved into one with a central inverted lotus bud which is very
usual in Hoysala Architecture. There is a huge serpent carved around the lotus and
a head is visible in one side whereas the tail of a serpent is found in another
side. The carvings are very intricate with many symbols of life, fertility.
From there on it is to Melkote to see the Cheluvanarayanan and
Sampathkumaran, Thayar, Udaqyavar and LakshmiNrisimhan is perched high on a steep
hill and the kalyani pushkarani.
Then onto Thonnur kare, where
Ramanuja stayed for sometime in his life ,spreading Vaishnavism,
preaching and converting many jains to
vaishnavism .It is here in the huge lake that he discovered a Krishna idol
,which is now in Ahobila matt as dolai kannan. The river or lakeside mud that
he found was very medicinal in its use and hence he used it as a thirumann
kappu which prevented colds and kept off many virals.
I was amazed at the information that Ramanuja went to the
lake daily for his rituals, morning salutations, and went back to the temple complex
for worship and preaching. The lake is in a valley which seems quite out of
bounds for us for a daily walk.
The three temples there---Gopalakrishnan temple with 2
thayars,
The Nambi Narayana koil and the third koil with Nrisimhar as the
presiding deity all have a huge complex with big greeneries ,and space around
them. The Nrisimha sannidhi has a Ramanuja vigraham which is called sthula
sareeram. The story goes that when
Ramanujar left for Srirangam from Thondanur , his bakthas
were very sad and won’t to let him go, he made under his supervision, a sodhai
statue which has the Adiseshan for his hood and a serpent winding round his
hips, His face and eyes look peculiarly like a serpent. He promised his
followers that he would continue to live in this statue. His eyes look very
alive and the entire visage is very lively and to me looked as if it were very
eager to tell us something!
A small imagination about Ramanujars life ,teachings, and the
times in which he chose to preach will leave one in absolute admiration and awe. The archakar showed us a 1000 year
old stick which Ramanujar used to treat the then kings daughter. We also see
the bamboo basket which he used ,it is preserved in a old glass casket.
Al said and done we did relive his life for a few moments
there therein lies a tale!
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