Parantharami Mani

                        On the way from Tiruvotriyur temple I also visited the Kalyana Varadaraja Perumal temple in Kaladipet.  The story goes like this.  In the early 18th century one Mr. Colett was the governor of Fort St.George between 1717to 1719.  He developed a weavers colony in North Madras near Thiruvotriyur called Colettpet which during the course of time became Kaladipet.  The Governor had a very close assistant  by  name Veeraraghava who was an ardent devotee of Lord Varadaraja Perumal of Kancheepuram.  H used to visit Kancheepuram at least twice a week which the Governor did not like. So he gave some funds to Veeraraghava for building a temple in Colettpet for Varadaraja.  He collected some more funds from the public and built the temple in early 18th century.  The templ has a small temple tank also and is visited by hundreds of devotees on weekends which I witnessed...

               Yesterday 9/5/2015 I visited two temples in Thiruvotriyur a suburb of Madras in the north.  The first one was the Vadivudaiyamman TemplE which was recently renovated and Kumbhabhishekam was done 2 months ago.  Thie is a 8th century  temple dedicated to Thiagaraja swami built by the Pallavas .  Over a period of 1200 years the temple has been renovated added by the Cholas, Pandiya and Vijayanagar rulers. The temple has a rich source of inscriptions all around in the walls both in Tamil and Telugu which tells the life and times of those periods and the various donations made to the temple by the kings. The Moolavar is Adhipureeshwarar and the consort is Vadivudaimman who is veneratd by the devotees.  There are 27 lingas representing the 27 stars around the prakara. There are separate temples for Ganesha, Muruga, Annamalai.  There is also a separate shrine for Thiruvotreeswarar in linga form. The main dei...

       This Tamil New Year day on 14/4/15  I celebrated by visiting 3 temples in George Town.  I started my tour a around 5 in the evening and first visited Mallikeswarar  Temple at Linghi chetty street.  This temple is more than a 300 year old temple and is dedicaed to Lord Siva.  The temple is atleast five feet below the road level and you have to go down the steps.  The Lingam is facing east and the main temple tower is facing South.  This tower was built in the year 1923  and was funded by Mangadu Ellappa Chettiar.  The temple recently celebrated Brahmotsavam.  Then I visited Venugopala Temple at Coral Merchant Street (Pavazhakara Street) which is 5 minutes from Mallikeswara Temple.  The temple is more than 200 year old and the Dwajasthambam was installed in the year 1894 and renovated in the last decade.  My last temple visit of the day was Kalatheeswara temple in the same street which is fully under ...

    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 he...

        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 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 wa...

  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 G...