Thanks to the Pallava, Chola and Pandian dynasties Tamil Nadu is gifted with hundreds of Saivaite and Vaishnavite temples, and the Cholas literally built temples on both banks of the River Cauvery all the way. It is a little later the Bhakti cult in the Tamil speaking land reached its top, during the period of Nayanmars and Alwars, and their hymns were recorded permanently in the twelve Thirumurais, and the Nalayira Divya Prabandham respectively. The hymns were set to music and became an integral part of ritual worship in the temples, which came to be hailed as 108 Divyadesas in Sri Vaishnavism, and ‘Padal Petra Sthalangal” in Saivism. It is said that 274 of the Siva temples in Tamil Nadu are the proud recipients of this divine award.
Thirunavukkarasar, Thirugnanasambandar, Sundarar and Manickavasagar are the four whose creations are popular.. While the hymns of the first three above are called
‘Thevaram’, Manickavasagar’s is called ‘Thiruvachagam’. The Thevaram and Thiruvachagam songs, were set to music by Nambiandar Nambi, even though some believe that Lord Siva himself did that.
The devout Nayanmars visited the temples all over Tamil Nadu, by walk, singing the praise of the Lord – and they have visited temples in Tiruchirapalli, Thiruvanaikoil, Uraiyur, Tirupparaithurai, Kulithalai etc. – though they must have passed through our village Tiruchendurai, the Chandrasekaraswamy Temple did not however find a place in the ‘padal petra sthalams’. Some say the Nayanmars would never have missed such a big temple in the Kaveri belt, and it is possible that the hymns composed by one or all of them have been lost somehow. It is unbelievable, but it is true.
In the fifties Vakeesa Kalanidhi, Ki.Va. Jagannathan paid a visit to our village. I had the pleasure of accompanying him all the way from Madras, to Tiruchi, then to Vayaloor and our village. When he visited the Chandrasekaraswamy Temple that evening, the first question he asked was whether there was a paadal on Tiruchendurai temple, and we could only answer him in the negative.
K.V.J., soon after darshan at the Swamy and Ambal Sannadhis composed a hymn, instantaneously, and some of us took notes of this hymn. When recently, I tried to trace this song with the residents of the village, I failed in my attempts, but I am still continuing my efforts to trace this hymn. I still remember the first line of this couplet and here it is:
மானேந்து கரதலத்தாள் மழுவேந்து ................
It should be there somewhere, in one of the note books of the residents, or in the memory of the elders and I wish they provide the full text of the couplet to the blog, as their contribution.
While there are over fifty stone inscriptions in the Temple, there are not many stone sculptures in our temple, barring one or two..
The above is the image of Vrshabhantika found in our temple. Vrshabhantikamoorthy is one of the forms of the Umakesa moorthys – leaning over Nandhi, the bull, and the lord’s right hand between the horns of the Nandi. The head of the lord is slightly tilted, and there is a kindly smile in his face. This will remind one of an identical pose of Sri Venugopala too! This image is in position in the Devakoshta niche.. Nandi the Bull, as we all know, is the Dharma Devatha, who was given asylum by lord Siva during the Maha Pralaya, and accepted as a ‘vahana’ by the lord. Lord Siva and Ambigai astride Nandi the dharmadevatha, with their hands in a blessing mode, is the speciality of the ‘vrshabanthikamoorthy’
The Chandrasekaraswamy Temple also gets a mention in history for the bronze idol of Nataraja. This idol in the ardhamandapa is in the ‘Urdhvajanu’ style and the scholars say
(excerpts from article by Dr. M. Rajamanickanaaar)
*** Urdhvajanu, is one of the hundred and eight karanas, and literally means ‘raised knee” Sculptures at Chidambaram, Thanjavur, and Kumbakonam have their right knee raised up to the waist. Even though the knee has not been raised up to the level of chest, as per the definition, this can still be called ‘urdhvajanu’ as presumably this represents an intermediate stage of the karana. Sculptures of Siva in this karana are sparsely seen in Tamilnadu, and the early Chola examples are seen at the Kuranganatha Temple in Srinivasanallur, Tenvayil Srikoil of Keezhaiyur, Nageswara Temple of Kumbakona, Siva Temple at Tirukkodikka AND CHANDRASEKARA TEMPLE AT TIRUCHENDURAI.
Gokul Seshadri of the Varalaaru.com, tells me that one of the extremely rare deity forms called ‘sakthi sathushka’ was found in the Rajagopuram of the Chandrasekaraswamy Temple, during the group research work; but during the Kumbabishegam renovations, this image was painted with modern colours and in an ugly way. This happens whenever a Kumbabishekam takes place, and the workers who are unaware of the beauties of the images in the gopuram just paint it in any manner on supervisor’s instructions. We should learn a lesson from this remark, that whenever a renovation is scheduled, some knowledgeable person should look all the sculptures and train the supervisors and workers to use perhaps mild color paints and retain the beauties in their original form.
It is heartening to learn that the residents of the village, since 2006 are now celebrating the divine wedding of Chandrasekharaswamy and Mrigadharambigai, in the month of Chithirai (April-May) every year. Make this a grand event and attend in large numbers !!
(photo taken during 2008 Thirukkalyanam at Tiruchendurai – courtesy VVS and Sivaram )
(to be continued)
- Sethuraman
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