Parantharami Mani

    On the way back from Kundrathur after around 5 kms there is small village called Kovur.  This village is famous for its siva temple dedicated to Lord Sundareshwar.  The village is very beautiful with the four mada Veedhis full of beautiful tiled houses well maintained with their thinnai in the entrance. It took me 150 years backward and I had a feeling as if I am living in the 1850s.  Such a pleasant village on the outskirts of Chennai city and not affected by its modern living.  The temple is a seventh century temple built by the chozha dynasty.The 7 tier main tower of the temple is facing south. The temple is one of the Navagraha temple around Chennai for Budhan (Mercury).  The main deity Lord Sundareshwar and Ambal Soundarambigai are said to be so beautiful here and hence they are called so.  There is a legend that Saint Thiagaraja the great composer of Carnatic music was once travelling to Tirupathi through this village.  The local headman of the village asked Thiagaraja to sin

        Recently I visited Kundrathur a small town 25 kms from Madras to satisfy my long felt desire of visiting the Murugan temple there.  I went by my motorcycle and it took me hardly 1 hour.  You have to take a right diversion at Porur junction from Mount Poonamalle Road and proceed 10 km to reach Kundrathur.  The temple is situated 1.5km from Kundrathur Bus Stand and is on a small hillock.  It is a very small temple probably constructed during the reign of Kulothunga Chola.  I could find epigraphic writing on the walls of the temple.  The presiding deity of Lord Muruga is with his consorts Valli and Deivanai.  I had a satisfactory darshan.        Just on the way back around  200 metres back from the hillock there is a temple dedicated to Perumal called Thiruooraga Perumal temple.  It is a very small temple maintained neat and clean.  The Thayar is called Thiruvirandavalli thayar and is by the side of main Sannidhi..  There are also separate sannidhis for Anjaneyar and Andal.  Th

    Last week I happened to visit Madras Museum with family.  The Madras Museum is one of the oldest one in India having established in 1851.  It has a good collection of items on different subjects like stone cutting, bronze gallaery, numismatics, anthropology,zoology etc.  Some of the more than 200 year cannons captured in various battles are also on display.  In the Anthropology section I happened to see the bronze statue of Col.James Neil of the East India Company Madras Army. There is a story behind this statue.  Col. James  Neil was born in the year 1810 in Scotland.  Like many of his fellow scottish people he came to India to join East India Company to earn a fortune.  He joined the Madras Army and rose to Colonel.  In the year 1857 the Sepoy Mutiny broke out at Meerut and in the beginning the Mutineers led by Mangal Pandey had a upper had and brutally killed many European soldiers and civilians.  So the Madras Army was called to the north to quell the mutineers.  A battallion

  Yesterday eveving I thought of suddenly going to Sowcarpet to visit Bairagi Mutt.  I was under the impression that it is in Mint Street.  So I went direct to Mint Street.  After crossing Audiappan Naicken Street and Hindu Theological School I found Branch of National Insurance Co.  where I worked for 9 months from November 1983 to August 1984.  I could recollect those golden days of my bachelor life and my colleagues in National like E M Krishnamoorthy, Daniel, Murali.  I used to earn around 1300 rupees which was a premium salary in those days.  Further down Mint St I found a temple which I thought was Bairagi Mutt. On entering the temple I found it to be a Ramar temple by name Sumaithangi Ramar temple.  The bhattacharya of the temple explained that it is more than a 100 year old temple.  The word Sumaithangi in Tamil means one who bears the load.  Perhaps  the workers who used to load their goods in the various godown in Georgetown in those days prayed to this God for relieving fr