VISIT TO OUR FAMILY DEITIES AND KUMBAKONAM[PART 1]
It’s a long while since I posted here and it’s good to be doing the thing I love most. I was busy with some personal work, but was sharing my posts on Instagram of the daily routine food stories. This post is a travel post which we as a family took a while back. We usually go and visit our family deities each year and also visit many adjoining temples. We are a family of Architectural lovers and religious bunch too. Our family deity is Ayyanar which is in Ananda Thandavapuram town near Mayavaram and also Swamimalai Swaminatha Swamy. We also visit the Vaitheeswara Swamy temple in Vaideeshvaran Kovil which is my family deity. While visiting so, the foodie in me props up and I love eating at places in and around Kumbakonam where we usually stay and hire a cab to visit the above temples.
I am sharing with you all the foodie delights of Kumbakonam or the temple city and also of the rich cultural heritage of our beautiful country. The name Kumbakonam is believed to be an allusion to the mythical pot (kumbha) of the Hindu god Brahma that contained the seed of all living beings on earth. The kumbha is believed to have been displaced by a pralaya (dissolution of the universe) .
One can see a cluster of temples in and around the Temple city of Kumbakonam. We usually visit a number of temples each year but our family deities Ayyanar and Swamimalai Swaminatha Swamy would be a must. We offer Abhisekhams and fully pray for the welfare of all. In addition to the many Shiva, Vishnu temples there are temples dedicated to Navagrahas. I will give a list of names of the places for each Navagraha in my future posts. We visited Saneeswara Temple in Thirinallaru dedicated to Lord Saneeswara or Saturn God, Alangudi dedicated to Lord Guru or Jupiter God and Vaitheeswaran Kovil dedicated to Lord Angarahan or Mars God.
We also visited Suryanar Kovil or the temple dedicated to Sun God and enjoyed the local cola drink Bovonto. Coming to the temple aspect I keep on wondering with awe the number of temples that are built so beautifully so many years back, where no technology or machinery was available. Every sculpture is a marvel from the hands of the sculptor and how beautiful that period my have been.
The Ayyanar temple is dedicated to Ayyanar or Ayyapan. In most cases Ayyanar is the guardian of the town and has the temple in the outskirts of the town. this temple is small yet has many families all over the globe who have this GOD as their family deity. The god’s consort is Sokkai and they both are seated together as a presiding diety. Outside the temple one can see huge sculptures of elehpants and horses which are supposedly in all ayyanar temples. The lake outside has water flowing and the nature adds to the beauty of chirping sounds of the birds and cow and cattle around.
The Swamimalai Temple is dedicated to Lord Muruga and of the Padi veedus of the six in Tamil Nadu. Padai Veedu is the abodes of Lord Muruga and this place is famous because the Lord here preached the pranava mantra OM to his father Lord Shiva. It has 60 steps to climb upon and each step depicts each tamil year.
We usually love to eat two places in Kumbakonam. One is at Venkat Ramana’s and the other is at Mami Mess. Mami Mess is run by Mrs. where food is so close to home and each time we visit, we have to wait. The locals also love to eat here as also the tourists.
We also visited Sarangapani Temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu. See the magnificient structural wonder of the Gopura. Also after the darshan we had the oppurtunity to visit the ancestral home of the famous Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujam. We saw the inside of the home, and the things he had used. It has been converted to a museum where students and interested people in maths visit all over from the world.
It’s always a pleasure to visit ones roots , their native place once in a while to get to know how and where our ancestors lived. Stay tuned for more such stories from me. Planning to visit soon here but other than our family deities it will be different temples this time. Till then, I will be posting my usual recipes. Keep visiting Nithya’s Kitchen for more.
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