Devadhanam Sivan Temple
Faustina Bartsch
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Some of the most revered Saivaite and Vishnu temples are located across the length and breadth of the Tirunelveli district. The vibrant landscape is dotted with multitudes of big and small temples dating back hundreds of years. There are several big Shiva temples which are relatively unknown and one should definitely visit these temples. There are several legends associated with each one of these divine temples making them Divine and Breath taking. Most of the temples were covered during 2-9-2017 to 14-9-2017 (13 days).
Google Map Locations of Tirunelveli Temples could be seen in the embedded Interactive Google Map below:By clicking on a location, photo of the temple, web links for more details of temple, Video (Youtube) links if any can be seen.
2.The temples are located in South India, four in Tamil Nadu and one in Andhra Pradesh. The five elements are believed to be enshrined in the five lingams of the temples, with each lingam named based on the element represented
3 According to Hinduism, life and the various species originated by the combination of planetary globes and the five manifestations of nature namely air, water, fire, land and sky. Bhoota in Sanskrit means compound and maha bhoota indicates a big compound.
5.Rabindranath Tagore, a nobel lauerate for literature, in his poem, Pancha bhoota, has explained the emotional faculty of the human mind is keenly sensitive to all objects of light, colour, sound, effect of speed, sun, moon and stars.
Lord is housed in the sanctum in the form of small Shiva Linga. There is a sculpture of Tortoise at the bottom of Dwajasthambam. This sculpture can be seen only in this Pancha Bhootha Sthalams.There are three shrines of Lord Shiva namely Kan Keduthavar, Kan Koduthavar and Kozhuntheeswarar on a little mount in this Temple. Lord Brahma can be found in meditation formin this Temple. This is a speciality in this Temple.
As per the Legend, due to the war between Cholas and Pandyas, lot of people got killed from both sides and the war was not coming to an end. Hence Chola King treacherously planned to kill Pandya King. He made apoisonous dress made of silk and presented to Pandya King. But Lord informed the Pandya King aboutthis heinous plan in his dreams and instructed Pandya King to cover the Linga with the poisonous dress.Pandya built this Temple in memory of this incident. Hence Lord is called as Nachadai Thavirthu Aruliya Nathar.
During the war between Pandyas and Cholas, Pandya King prayed to Lord Shiva for Victory. On accountof this, Chola King lost both his eye sight. Chola King got back his one eye sight after praying to Lord Shiva of this Temple and another one after building a temple at at Sethur (nearby) Thirukkaneeswarar .
As per another legend, a poet, who wrote a book called Sethur Thala Varalaru, presented to the Village assembly at this Temple. A Poet named Chandran Amudhan argued that this book contains mistakes. He also said that he cannot accept the book without the recognition of God. Suddenly, heavy rain started pouring in this temple.Everyone in the village assembly accepted the rain as a recognition of Lord. But Chandran was not convinced. Poet prayed to Lord Shiva for his intervention. At that time, a parrot lived in the Mother Shrine bought a flower and ring from Mother, gave it to the poor poet. Everyone in the village assembly was amazed to witness this miracle. Even Chandran Amudhan also accepted the Book. Village assembly bestowed the poet with the Title called Ponnayira Kavirayar.
As per another legend, about 60 years ago, a poor farmer lived here. Five of his five children died before reaching their teenage. Farmer was sad and he came to Devadanam and prayed to Lord Shiva here. An elderly man fromthe village told him to pray to Lord that he will give the name of the Lord to the Children born hereafter. Subsequently, he named the children born to him as Nachadai Lingam, Ammaiappan and Paramasivan. Days passed, one day, his son was hit by a poisonous fever. Doctors also lost hope. Sadstricken farmer took the child to the Temple. He kept the baby under the Tree and prayed to Lordsincerely. By the grace of Lord Shiva, baby started to laugh and recovered from the illness miraculously.
The Mupurathas lived by building three great forts using gold, silver, iron, etc. People worshipped Lord Parameswara, their favourite deity, to save them from them. It was at the time when Parameswara and Umayammai, the daughter of Araiyan, who ruled the Himalayas, were married. Lord Eashwaran had sent Sage Agasthya to Pothigai hill to balance the world for marriage. Even with Sage Agastya the three Mupurathas could have been driven away. However, Lord Parameswara came directly to the South India to protect the devotees.
Accordingly, a temple was built at the foothills of the Thenmalai hill for Lord Shiva. The Palayakarar would not do any work without worshipping Lord Shiva. In many of the battles that followed, the Sivagiri Palayakkaras won all of them. Even after they shifted their palace from from Thenmalai to Sivagiri, they never failed to worship Lord Shiva here.. This custom exists in their descendants till now
A miracle happened on the night of october 28 , 2017, which was captured on camera. A photograph taken by a devotee showed a green glowing light on the lord with the pranava mantram Om in it. a few seconds later when he took another picture it was not there. Pournami Girivalam around the Temple is very famous here. All Shiva related festivals are celebrated here.
This is an east facing temple with nine tiered Rajagopuram. Lord Shiva is housed in the sanctum in the form of Spadika Lingam. Ambal is housed in a separate shrine and she is facing south. Lingam worshipped Lord Lakshmana can be found in the Temple premises in the name of Lakshmaneswarar. Lakshmaneswarar can be found along with his consort Komalambigai.
There are shrines for Sowbagya Ganapathy, Dhandapani, Shanmugam, Adhikara Nandeeswarar, Suryan,Chandran, Agasthya, Kasi Viswanathar with his consort Visalakshi, Juradevar, Kandhuri Amman, SapthaMathas, Siddhi Vinayagar, Pancha Lingas, Lakshmi, Brahma, Saneeswarar, Natarajar and Lakshmana in theTemple premises.
Here, Sage Agasthya installed Ambal in the form of Sri Chakra and worshipped her. This is the Parasakthi Peetham. This Parasakthi Peetham is situated in the southern outer prakara of the temple as a separate sannidhi.
The Mandapam in front of Rajagopuram was built by Pulidevan. The Northern Prakaram and EasternMandapam was built by Arunachalam Chettiyar in 1928 AD. He also done Kumbabishekam for thisTemple. An Idol of Arunachalam Chettiyar can be found at the entrance of the Temple.
As per the legend, when King Kulasekara Pandyan went for hunting expedition, he chased an elephant, it went inside this Shiva temple and circumbulated Shiva Linga hidden in bushes. Suddenly, elephant got transformed to a Bhootha Gana (Attendants of Lord Shiva). Since elephant circumbulated Lord Shiva of this Temple, the place came to be called as Kari (Elephant) Valam Vantha (Circumbulation) Nallur (Place).
As per another Legend, the King Varagunarama Pandiyan who was ruling this place, had no sons. Lord Shiva appeared in the dreams of the worried King and informed him that Lord himself will do the last ritesfor the King. When King died, there were no persons to do the last rites. At that time, Lord Shiva inform of Old Brahmin appeared and performed the last rites for the King. Lord Shiva performed lastrites to humans only in two places. One was Thiruvannamalai where Lord Shiva performed last rites toVallala Maharaja. The Other was Karivalamvandanallur where Lord Shiva performed last rites toVaragunarama Pandiyan.
As per another Legend, Lord Lakshmana got Brahma Hatti Dosha for killing Indrajit, son of Ravana. To get rid of this sin, Lakshmana came here and consecrated the Linga. He worshipped Lord Shiva and got his relief from his sin. Lingam worshipped Lord Lakshmana can be found in the Temple premises in the name of Lakshmaneswarar.
As per another Legend, in ancient times, nectar emerged when the ocean of milk was churned. Knowing that it would be beneficial if the devas consumed it, and if the asuras consumed it, demonism would increase , Lord Vishnu took the form of Mohini and tricked so that the nectar was available only to the deities. Enraged by this, the asuras went to their kula guru, Sukracharya, and complained to him.
In order to satisfy them, he created a milk tank on earth in a place called Karuvaipathi. Hearing this, the gods feared that if the demons drank milk from the lake, they too would gain strength. They immediately took refuge in Lord Shiva. Realizing the danger posed by the milk tank, he disguised himself as a Brahmin boy and plunged into it, which turned it into a mere water tank. Due to this, the asuras were disappointed. As he thus immersed himself in the milk tank and turned it into a water tank, the Lord here is called Palvannanathar and the tank created by Shukra is called Sukra Theertham.
It is believed that Sage Agasthya formed Parasakthi Peedam on three places namely; Kutralam,Vedaranyam and Karivalamvandanallur. It is also believed that Sri Vishnu, Brahma, Sage Agasthya, Devas, Sage Narada and Sage Vasishta worshipped Lord Shiva here. It is said that Lord Shiva performed his Nithya Thandava in this place
Varagunarama Pandyan had sung Pathu Pattu Anthathi, Venba Anthathi, Kalithurai Anthathi on Lord Shiva of this Temple. He had sung around 300 Anthathi songs. Shaivites refer his collections as miniTiruvasagam.
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