Srivilliputhur

It was a wedding that took us, girls to Srivilliputhur. By the way this is a different set of girls, unlike the 4 babes. We were a gang of 6 who went together to attend a fellow dancers’ wedding. Oh yes. I am sure you must be knowing by now, though I have two left feet, I have been into some serious Zumba for the last couple years at office. Must have been an uncanny coincidence that a girls trip was to a temple where the prime deity is Andaal, a powerful goddess. 

Starting the journey, in the train

It was after a long time, I was travelling by train, and that too with a group of friends, all girls and an excitement had set in long ago. Jayanthi ensured that the tickets were booked much in advance back and forth in Podhigai express, a direct train to Srivilliputhur. We were accompanied by Sudha, Lavanya and Gayathri. Our Zumba instructor and adorable dancer Monica, was travelling by car with her newly married husband. 

Train journeys are always pleasant and in a way quite romantic, probably because they take us back to our simpler juvenile times, where we immensely enjoyed them. We chatted along, planned our day at Srivilliputhur and our trip to waterfalls nearby, painting our nails, gobbling up all the home made food from different homes and yes all this until we slept, which invariably was late. 

My first picture in Srivilliputhur, from our lodge

We reached the town pretty early and checked into a lodge overlooking the temple, so close that it almost felt like we were in the temple complex itself. We probably took the Chennai rains with us and it looked like a wonderfully rainy day. Infact, when I took the first pictures of the temple towers that you see, it was raining cats and dogs.

The first pit stop was the temple and as always, since we had done adequate  research and added to it, Jayanthi had organized a guide to take us within the temple complex. Pretty soon, we were at the gates of this imposing 11-tiered gopuram of this great temple. The tower of this temple rises 192 feet high and is the official symbol of the Government of Tamilnadu since its façade is devoid of idols of deities unlike the gopuram of other temples.

Kothai, the adopted daughter of Periazhvar, a Vaishnava sage and devotee of Vishnu, was seen wearing the flower garland intended for the lord. Though  her father, was quite upset and reprimanded his daughter, the god in his dream told the sage to offer him the same flower garland worn by Kothai for puja. Kothai's love for the lord was so intense, ultimately she married the lord. Hence, Kothai was called Andaal and got the appellation Chudi Kodutha Sudarkodi (the woman who gave the lord the flower garland worn by her).

Andaal is well-known for her wonderful Tamil literary works - Thirupavai (consisting of devotional songs) and Nachiyar Thirumozhi. The vimanam (mini tower) is beautified with the poems of Andaal and we tried reading them. Since its ancient script, none of us could succeed at it, but still gave it a try. 

Such a beauty, this leaf parrot

Here in the sanctum, a hand-crafted parrot with fresh green leaves adorns the left hand of Andal's idol. A fascinating fact is, this endearing leaf parrot that takes roughly around four and half hours to be crafted, is specially made daily by a florist for the goddess. Pomegranate flower for beak and mouth, Bamboo sticks for legs, banana leaves, petals of pink oleander and crape jasmine (nandiyavattai) flower go into the making of the parrot. The guide who also is a priest at the temple, told us that there is just one family at Srivilliputhur who can craft it now, and only a single parrot is made every day. The one that you see in the picture is a day old and the guide brought it out to show us, since we specifically requested for it. Look at its workmanship.  Isn't it adorable? and remember its a day old.

It is also quite interesting to note that a Garland worn by Andaal is sent all along to Tirupathi in Andhra Pradesh a day before the Brahmotsavam start and is used to garland Lord Balaji. Similarly, every year, Tirupathi Balaji’s garland is sent to Srivilliputtur for marriage festival of Andal Thayar. 

Goddess Andal's hair style and ornaments are unique here unlike the ornamentation and hair style of goddess Laksmi. Andal Kondai (a bun),typical hair styling tilted to one side and elaborate plaited hair is famous and quite striking. In the Vaishnava Brahmin weddings, invariably, the bride wears Andal Kondai and this tradition has been vogue for centuries. 

The rich architecture of Srivilliputhur

When it comes to sculptural beauty and architectural excellence, Srivilliputhur temple stands out. There are very few temples that I have visited in India, that could be the reason, but the main mandapam adorned with giant sized statues are astonishing. The Pillar-Hall, with an artistically designed front view, welcomes us to the Flag Staff. In the columns of this hall, the carved figures of Rama, Lakshmana, Arjunan, Karnan, Rathi Devi, Manmadhan, Gugan and Mohini and many others look excellently beautiful. ( I do not remember the others)

Sudha with Manmadhan,
notice the sugar cane?

I should mention the speciality of these statues – they are soulfully carved and especially Manmadhan’s feet is supposed to feel like human skin, which is a pièce de résistance. Unfortunately, though all of us loved the muscles of Manmadhan statue, the feet were covered with turmeric and we couldn’t feel it. Manmadhan is seen holding a sugarcane, again carved in stone, and its so realistically made, that when you tap the sugarcane with a coin you get the sound of real sugarcane. Amazed by the skills of the artisans, we went around listening to the interesting stories and didn’t realise we had spent an easy two hours in this temple. 

All of us at temple

Dressed for the wedding 

We had to pose!!

From this moment we knew our time is limited and it was an eternal rush. Adorned in sarees we all went for the wedding, took the bride and groom to the stage, dancing to the smiles of the people there and left for courtallam falls which was almost a couple of hours drive from there. Felt refreshed with the water thumping on our heads at the waterfalls, screaming above the sound of waters and enjoying the supposedly medicinal water falling on us. The drive to courtallam was scenic and the Tenkasi railway station reminded me so much of my maternal grandparents place chalakudi. 

Back in the train, tired, Srivilliputhur temple and its architecture were the last images that came up in my mind, before I fell asleep.

Postscript:

This trip happened in October 2019.  This post took the longest to be written and published. Almost a month since i started writing it. and feeling accomplished that I even finished it. :-)