This is an account of my travel to kumbakonam. Jotting this down lest I forget the the great places I visited.
Started to Kumbakonam from Mysore on 3-Aug 2012, the occasion was that my wife's family had arranged a puja at the temple of Sri Oppiliappan near Kumbakonam. We reached kumbakonam on 4th morning and went to a lodge near the Oppillianppan temple.
I had heard about the temple some time back and had a desire to go and pray to the Lord there. But this occasion was a God sent one!
The temple is atleast a 1500 to 1700 years old I believe. This is because it is being sung by 3 to 4 alwars. Importantly by Sri Nammazhwar who is said to have named the lord Oppilliappan Oppu-illada-appan - The Lord without a second!
It was really a great blessing to be standing before Him. The murthy about 9 ft tall with Bhudevi and Markandeya rishi kneeling before on either of his sides inspires everyone immensely. There is no Thayar- sannidhi in the temple separately.
After the darshan we came back and rested a bit. Then we started to visit other Divya deshams around the temple. We first visited the Thirukkannapuram temple- where again we got to visit the amazingly big murthy of the Lord called Shourirajan if I can recollect correctly, I'm not sure if this is the name of the moola vigraha or the utsavar. Thirumangai Alwar has composed more than a 100 pasurams on this Lord alone! Next we visited Thirukkannamangai temple where again we enjoyed the darshan of the Lord Bhakthavatsalan , our next temple was Thirucherai where we visited Lord Saranathan and Saranayaki the shtalam is called Pancha Saara kshetram.
Our last temple on the day was Nachiyar kovil famous for the 'Kal Garuda' where a miraculous occurrence still happens even to this day. During the various utsavams the Lord is taken on the huge Kal-Garudar(stone Garuda vahanam) in the inner most prakaram around the Garbha Griham only 4 people carry the lord on the Kal Garuda in the next prakaram 8 people should carry it and the next 32 , 64 128 and so on. It is miraculous that ony 4 people are able to carry the huge heavy vahana in the first ... certainly a minor Leela of the Lord. The lord here is not positioned as directly facing the garbha griha entrance, the Thayar-Mother is facing the entrance along with the Lord, impressing the power of the Divine Mother on the devotee.
To continue...
Started to Kumbakonam from Mysore on 3-Aug 2012, the occasion was that my wife's family had arranged a puja at the temple of Sri Oppiliappan near Kumbakonam. We reached kumbakonam on 4th morning and went to a lodge near the Oppillianppan temple.
I had heard about the temple some time back and had a desire to go and pray to the Lord there. But this occasion was a God sent one!
The temple is atleast a 1500 to 1700 years old I believe. This is because it is being sung by 3 to 4 alwars. Importantly by Sri Nammazhwar who is said to have named the lord Oppilliappan Oppu-illada-appan - The Lord without a second!
It was really a great blessing to be standing before Him. The murthy about 9 ft tall with Bhudevi and Markandeya rishi kneeling before on either of his sides inspires everyone immensely. There is no Thayar- sannidhi in the temple separately.
After the darshan we came back and rested a bit. Then we started to visit other Divya deshams around the temple. We first visited the Thirukkannapuram temple- where again we got to visit the amazingly big murthy of the Lord called Shourirajan if I can recollect correctly, I'm not sure if this is the name of the moola vigraha or the utsavar. Thirumangai Alwar has composed more than a 100 pasurams on this Lord alone! Next we visited Thirukkannamangai temple where again we enjoyed the darshan of the Lord Bhakthavatsalan , our next temple was Thirucherai where we visited Lord Saranathan and Saranayaki the shtalam is called Pancha Saara kshetram.
Our last temple on the day was Nachiyar kovil famous for the 'Kal Garuda' where a miraculous occurrence still happens even to this day. During the various utsavams the Lord is taken on the huge Kal-Garudar(stone Garuda vahanam) in the inner most prakaram around the Garbha Griham only 4 people carry the lord on the Kal Garuda in the next prakaram 8 people should carry it and the next 32 , 64 128 and so on. It is miraculous that ony 4 people are able to carry the huge heavy vahana in the first ... certainly a minor Leela of the Lord. The lord here is not positioned as directly facing the garbha griha entrance, the Thayar-Mother is facing the entrance along with the Lord, impressing the power of the Divine Mother on the devotee.
To continue...
