Kadaimugam 2019

It was a 2-year break after we started our annual pilgrimage during mid-November, in 2011. Six consecutive years saw six successful trips to mark the end of the month of Ippasi (Thulaamaasam), technically called as Kadaimugam. First day of Ippasi is when Kaveri river gets Her pravaagham marked by the bubbling up of fresh water from the tank in the town of Talakaveri, where She originates.

In golden olden days, it was a custom to take bath (Thulaasnaanam) in Kaveri on all 30 days of the month of Ippasi, starting at Talakaveri on day 1, walking along the course of the river and taking bath in each designated town/ bathing ghat for that day, and ending up in Mayiladuthurai on Day 30. Some of the famous bathing ghats enroute are:

Srirangapattinam – Aadhirangam
Madhyarangam
Trimukudalu Narsipura (Kabini sangam)
Bhavani kooduthurai (Bhavani sangam)
Kodumudi (town where Kaveri turns East after running South/ South East)
Kulittalai/ Musiri
Thiruparaithurai
Amma Mandapam (Srirangam)
Thirukattupalli (Kudamurutti divergence)
Tiruvaiyaru
Bhagavath Padithurai (Mela Kaveri, Kumbakonam)
Kuttalam
Laagadam (Thulaakattam, Mayiladuthurai)

The fairly large town of Mayiladuthurai cries to get carved out as a separate district from Nagapattinam district. It once had a lot of posters calling out their MP, “Mr. x, when are you going to convert Mayiladuthurai as Dubai, as promised during elections”. I sincerely do not wish this town become Dubai – let it retain its quaint charm of an old-world town, with two big temples, their maadaveedhis, rathams, small roads, a holy river flowing through the town with a beautiful ghat that is equivalent to Benaras – Yes! Laagadam is equivalent to Kasi as it has the twin shrines of Tundi Ganapathi and KaalaBhairavar, just like that city. What else will mark its significance than the fact that the holy Ganga river Herself takes a bath in Kaveri at Laagadam on the Kadaimugam day to wash of sins that we drop off in Her all through the year.

The Prep work:

As always, the announcement was made 5 months in advance, to select recipients who share the wavelength. The number of participants were on the increasing trend consistent with earlier years. Tickets were booked on ARP – only change was that I had to come from Coimbatore while the gang has to come from Chennai. Appa, Vaibhav*, Anand, Sivakumar mama, Prabhu, Sasikumar (replaced by his son Keerthivasan*), Srikanth (‘Sri’)*, Ramesh*, K Srini* and Sakthi were the ones from Chennai. Sateesh* and Subram had to drop off due to personal work. N Srini* literally hopped on to a house-full bus, details to be covered elsewhere in the blog. From Coimbatore were Ram*, Prabhakar* and Jay*, with Karthik* joining them at the last minute.

* indicates first timers.

How we arrived:

I had multiple options, ended up taking a new blue/ grey (what I call the ‘LHB’ of TNSTC!!) bus from Singanallur to Tiruchchirappalli Central Bus Stand. He started at 6 pm and dropped me at 11.15 PM on the preceding Friday (Nov. 15, 2019). I was curious to know what would be the water levels in Kaveri at Laagadam – the scene of a bone dry river and being forced to taking a bath in one of the make-shift sprinklers in the river bed was still fresh in my mind. So, the sound of river water flowing through one of the hundreds of channels (vaaykkaal) was a pleasant thing to hear, and in fact made me wake up from a short nap, when my bus entered Kulittalai. The stretch from Kulittalai to Kambarasampettai is where the Karur – Tiruchi road runs right next to the Aganda Kaveri river. The very sight of Kaveri, running bank-to-bank full with water to the brim, on that chilly November night was a delight that can hardly be expressed in words. I finished my late evening dinner at Shree Sangeethas and took a Kumbakonam bound 1-to-1 bus at Central BS. As it was a bit empty for an odd hours departure, the conductor allowed Thanjavur passengers also in. He reached Kumbakonam at 2.30 AM. I hopped on to a Mayiladuthurai bound bus at 3 AM. He dropped me at Kaveri Nagar stop next to Junction at 3.45 AM. Our friend Dinesh had already informed that his cousin Selva will be our driver this year. He proved to be no lesser than Dinesh, for he called me at 3 AM to check where I was and offered to pick me up at Kaveri Nagar by 3.45 AM. I went to the waiting room in PF1 at 4 AM and found N Srinivasan already in – he had come by a crowded Antyodaya Express (what railfans fondly call as ‘Aunty’!!) as he missed to book Tatkal by 2 minutes. He had been through the crushing grind of a typical unreserved coach with 4 pax in 3-seater arrangement!

The majority of the gang arrived shortly by Uzhavan Express at 4.30 AM. A short round of introductions and then we were off to the waiting hall again for two reasons – charge the phones and wait for morning sun rays to hit the town. I had earlier observed during my journey from Thanjavur that all the distributaries of Kaveri were running full with strong current. I didn’t want to take any risk with so many people in the gang who don’t know swimming. Ram, Jay, Prabhakar and Karthik have arrived the earlier night at Peralam and were staying in Prabhakar’s house. They joined us at Junction at 5 AM.

Laagadam session:

We took a call at 5.15 AM to start and have a light snack at Ayyappas in Kutcheri Road in Town. We were welcomed with hot vadai, idly, pongal and coffee, albeit at rates at par with Saravana Bhavan! In the meantime, it was one spell of heavy rainfall for nearly 20 minutes that made even the Kutcheri Road a mini Kaveri river. The sky was overcast. With some early morning refreshment going inside, we got our energy batteries recharged and decided to go to Laagadam. Being very early around 6 AM at Laagadam has its own benefits – one such benefit was that we were able to take our Tempo Traveller to the mandapam in the bathing ghat area before the barricades were placed.

Laagadam area was its usual aesthetic best, afresh with audio-visual delights. The sight of Kaveri river in full flow, water full to the brim, the Nandi mandapam in the middle of the river, devotional songs played over the speaker sets, thousands of people taking the holy dip in the river… it is sheer bliss. No wonder that the entire gang had a wonderful time bathing in the river. The customary three full dips ‘muzhukku’ facing the pravaagham were done, followed by reciting the Deva Prayag paasuram of Thirumangaiazhwar. Yes, this is the day on which the holy Ganga river will Herself take a dip in Kaveri, right?

It was almost 7.30 AM by the time we wrapped up, figuratively with our towels and literally with the session, and moved to the Tempo Traveller (‘Van’ going forward in this post). It so happened that the day, on which Sri had sponsored for Veda Parayanam at Vallalar Kovil, was on the day of our visit.  Ramesh and Sri were trying to figure out where the temple was… I peeped into their conversation and told them all they have to do is to turn around 180 degrees to see the temple’s entrance – they didn’t realise they were standing right in front of it as the main nameboard was hiding behind a bus that was standing there. Sri introduced our gang to the coordinator there and then we had a very good darshan at the temple.

Next was our bunch of customary visits – Mayuranathar Kovil, with darshan of all the deities in their respective vahanams ready for the visit to Laagadam by noon, followed by Tiffin at Kaliyagudi. Unfortunately, the restaurant was full (it was almost 8.30 AM by the time we were there). We took a call to switch over to another hotel nearby, Saravana Bhavan. Food was good, not better than Kaliyagudi though. After filling ourselves with food, we ventured out to the next customary stop – Indhalur Parimala Ranganathar Kovil. We had spent a lot of time in the river, so it had a consequential impact here as well. By the time we reached the temple, the temple chariot was half way down the South Mada Street. We went into the temple, had a sevai of Perumal and came back for the ‘Forenoon session’ of the day.

Day 1 – Forenoon Session:

I asked Selva to do a ‘vudraa Shammugam povattum’ towards Vaitheeswaran Kovil. Enroute, gang in the van had some entertainment with Vaibhav sharing some PJs from the Animals Jokes book he had brought. The gang’s request to peep into Vaitheeswaran Kovil was turned down as we had a bunch of remote temples to cover. Our trip rules favour remote temples over temples on main roads and inside fairly big towns. The first stop was Sivalokanathar temple, Thirupungur, the birth place of Nandanar. Popularly known as Thirunaalaipovaar, Nandanar had the opportunity of Sivan Himself ordering Nandi to shift Its place so that he can get an obstruction free darshan from outside the temple. One of the dwarapalakas, who was surprised to hear a voice coming from inside the garbhagraham is seen with His head and shoulders in a slanting position. We also had darshan of KuLamvettiya Vinayakar, who helped Nandanar finish his task of deepening a tank and strengthening its bund overnight. The Nandi in this temple is huge in size.

Let me use the language of Namma Metro, mundhina nildhaana, Thalainayar (Thalai Gnaayiru). The name given in Thevaram is Thirukaruppariyalur. The architecture of this temple is called ‘Kogudi Kovil’. Kogudi means mullai climber (Arabian Jasmine). Like how a mullai climber attaches itself to a support and stands upright, the kattumalai temple complex stands adjacent to the main sannadhi. This is one of the 72 maadakovils built by Kochengannan Cholan. The kattumalai is a beauty to behold. It is very similar in this regard to Sirkali, so has got the name mElaikkaazhi, which literally means Sirkali of the West. While there are no sannadhis in its ground floor, the first floor has a big vigraham of Thoniappar and Ambal, along with a facility to do a prakaaravalam. A plight of narrow and rickety wooden steps leads us to the Sattainathar sannadhi in the second floor. There is no place to stand in front of Him there – we need to have darshan while standing in those steps itself. The handsome moortham of Sattainathar is beyond words. He will probably be around 4 ft in height, but the features in the vigraham are so lively and mesmerising that one will feel as if a person is standing there alive.

The next stop was Thirukurakkaval, on the other bank of Varaganaaru that flows in between. Had I known swimming, I would have probably attempted to swim and reach there. Our group had no choice but to come back to Manalmedu, cross the river and follow that river’s left bank again for the same 2 km to reach the temple. This temple was worshipped by Anchaneyar and has a separate sannadhi for Him. By the time we were there on that Saturday, it was buzzling with activity – lots of devotees were queueing up to tie a rakshai on their right hands.

Having finished, we marched on to Thiruvaalaputhur. This was the biggest among the temples in that session, complete with three prakarams and all goshtamoorthams. It was nearing 12 noon. We were in a dilemma now. Suddenly, the next stop in the list, Pandanallur seemed far away. We took a calculated risk and attempted going to Iluppaipattu. Enroute, Prabhu had called Pandanallur temple and confirmed that it was closed for the morning nadai. Fortunately for us, Iluppaipattu temple was open at 12.15 PM on that day. They were just about to wrap up, but put it on hold seeing this big crowd of 16 getting down from a van and a car. One cannot miss noticing the huge Iluppai tree (Mahua) to the left just as we enter the temple. This temple is also a maadakovil built by Kochengannan. It has separate sannadhis for each of the five lingams worshipped by Pandavas and the one by Draupati. The name given for this temple in Thevaram is PazhamaNNi Padikkarai (the one on the banks of PazhamaNNiaaru, a distributory of Kollidam). Readers familiar with delta may recollect that Kollidam is the only left bank distributory of Kaveri.

Lunch mela:

Yes, I intentionally used the word ‘mela’. Just as we finished our darshan at 12.30 PM, we were hungry, so much hungry that the gang voted against going all the way to Kumbakonam just for having lunch at Venkataramana. This is where Sri gave a timely and brilliant suggestion – let us have lunch at Seetharama Vilas at Aduthurai. We drove there and incidentally happened to be at the right moment just before the crowds starting pulling in. It was a full course meal, ripe with an awesome sundakka vaththakozhambu and semiya payasam. It was a real feast/ mela for all of us. I gave out a guide announcement that we will head towards Tiruvarur, do a check in at Hotel Selvies, take one hour rest and be ready at 4 PM.

Day 1 – Evening Session:

With a heavy duty morning session, a heavy lunch and a good full-meal, it was a lazy stroll for us in the afternoon. We first headed to Thirukondeeswaram, near Nannilam. It was fairly large temple with a huge agazhi (moat), similar to Nandaankoil. We had a satisfactory darshan here. The ‘car vechirundha karagattagoshti’ from Peralam, went to Peralam after lunch as they didn’t require a room in a hotel. They went to Thirumeeyachur and were supposed to join us at Panaiyur. After a brief stop at Sannanallur for fuel, we abandoned the plan to Panaiyur as it was getting dark earlier than anticipated and the temple was approachable only through a single road. The next stop was decided as Virkudi. Google akka guided us through a what seemed to be a good road on the map, however, it turned out to be a narrow strip of a village road – I motivated the doubting driver to drive further in the road... it had to be stopped at a place where road has caved in to an extent even two wheelers found it difficult to negotiate. Luckily enough we were just metres away from a puliyamaraththadi which offered enough space to take a U turn. Virkudi visit was abandoned in favour of a visit to Thoovainathar temple in Tiruvarur (Aroor Paravaiyunmandali, in Thevaram). The day happened to be a Thiruvadhirai natchathram day and we were just in time to have darshan of Abhishekam to the main moortham.

Selva took the cab and brought Appa, Anand and Vaibhav who opted out of afternoon plan to take rest in the hotel. We all assembled in front of Maatruraitha Vinayakar sannadhi (Melavaasal/ West Gopuram). Vaibhav along with the gang demanded a detailed guided tour of the Tiruvarur temple. I heeded to the request and covered the following in detail, along with guide notes and temple history:

Maatruraitha Vinayakar
West Mada Street and the story of Sundarar coming back to the town
Kamalambal sannadhi
Vanmeeka nathar sannadhi
Navagrahams in straight line
Runahareswarar sannadhi
Thiyagarajar sannadhi
Achaleswaram
East Gopuram
Vittavaasal and
Stone chariot of Manu neethi cholan

I have never got such an extended period of time to stand in front of Thiyagarajar sannadhi – almost 10 – 15 minutes in front of my most favourite vigraha moortham! It was enthralling. Manu neethi cholan stone chariot was closed, so gang had to get contended with a view from the outside. As always, time spent was not enough for Sakthi – I told him to come ‘aaraam se’ and spend one full day in the temple to cover all the sannadhis.

It was around 8 PM by the time we finished our tour. Vaibhav, Appa and I returned to the hotel to have dinner ordered through room service, while the rest of the gang marched to a hotel that Sri, Ramesh and N Srini have screened during their afternoon stroll for a good filter coffee. A deep sleep was then in the offing for we had an equal amount of temples lined up for Day 2.

Sri, Ramesh and N Srini had to return that Saturday night – they signed off to board Mannai Exp at Junction, while the car goshti returned to their den in Peralam.

Day 2 – Morning Session:

A bright morning at 7 AM with a prominent view of East, South and West gopurams of the main temple the window of my room was enough to charge the batteries. It was raining heavily despite the sunshine, indicating a passing cloud. We went to the same hotel where they had the dinner. We got to meet Peralam gang there. It was all set – a good breakfast with regular Idly, Vadai, Dosai and Pongal combination and batteries fully charged.

Our first stop was Kivalur on Nagapattinam Road. One of the 72 maadakovils built by Kochengannan Cholan, this temple had recently seen a Kumbabhishekam. All the prakarams were super clean and neatly maintained. A session for some group photos and we were off to the first of the Pancha Narayana kshetrams, Yadava Narayana Perumal Kovil in Kivalur. The temple was closed and set to open only at 10.30 AM. This was the only temple where we did not have darshan during our trip.

The next step was Thevur, another one of the maadakovils. Literally empty compared to Kivalur. We were also in time for a good sevai of the second of the five Narayana Perumals, Deva Narayana Perumal. We abandoned the plan of visiting the third one at Vadakalathur in favour of going straight to the fourth one, Damodara Narayana Perumal Kovil at Thirukannangudi, which is also one of the 108 Divyadesams. Enroute, to satisfy my passion, SR decided to close the level crossing at Kivalur station. A full load of BOX-N wagons hauled by revving multiple EMD WDG-4 locos was just entering the loop. This meant a delayed departure for Tea Garden Express at Tiruvarur. Finally, it crossed the station at a moderate speed, after 15 minutes of us waiting there.

It was an excellent sevai of Perumal at Thirukannangudi. I was sharing guide notes on the saying, “ooraa kenaru, urangaa puLi, kaayaa magizh, thOlaa vazhakku Thirukannangudi” and how moolavar and uthsavar are alike like a scale model. It was a tough choice to skip Aavaraani in favour of Nagapattinam. K Srini would have sure been screaming inside to go to Aavaraani, where a Perumal who has stolen his heart, resides! Nagapattinam scored ahead as it was a Divyadesam. True to our decision, Soundararaja Perumal (after a brief wait of 10 minutes), gave us a beautiful sevai. It was a first time that I heard a bhattar doing archanai in Kaanada ragam! He was also kind enough to recite all the 10 pasurams of Nagapattinam by Thirumangaiazhwar, along with their detailed explanation and told us how one will get the palan of visiting 10 divyadesams by visiting Nagapattinam. He also made sure that we had something to eat and satiate our ‘mudhal pasi’ by giving us kadhambam, sakkaraipongal, dhadhyonnam and karasev. It was 12.45 PM by the time we finished our mini lunch and an inquiry with the temple authorities revealed that Neelayathakshi Amman kovil would have anyway got closed at 12.30 PM itself – it was not worth the planned attempt. This was the second time I had to give that temple a miss. May be She wanted to test me for more time!!

We returned to Selvies for lunch and some rest before the afternoon session.

Day 2 – Evening Session:

We started sharp at 3.45 PM after the check-out formalities are completed. We were sharp at 4 PM at our first stop for the session, Patanjali Manoharar temple, Vilamal. Temple opening time was learned to be 4.30 PM. We asked Selva to take us to a tea shop for treating us with hot beverages. We walked the way back to the temple and spent some time chatting on the steps of an about-to-overflow awesome-during-monsoon type temple tank. It reminded us of typical Kerala side temple tanks. The temple was opened at 4.30 PM sharp. Gurukkal had also arrived. He asked us to keep quiet for the entire time we spent in the temple. It is an idheeham that all Devargal will do poojai for this Sivan and Ambal between 4.45 PM and 5.45 PM and our conversations would disturb them – he even locked up the grill gate of the main shrine after finishing his poojai in 15 minutes.

Next step was Ohai Peraiyur. We took the Mannargudi road for some distance and took left where the road to Vadapathimangalam diverged. A couple of village roads, a few narrow vaaykkaal bridges and we reached the temple. As suspected, it was closed. This temple has only one poojai everyday and the Gurukkal has left already. He was some 15 km away. However, some kind hearted villagers, when they came to know that we have come all the way from Madras, brought keys of the main door and let us in. We were fortunate enough to have darshan through the keyhole of the wooden door. Experiencing such a darshan for the first time!

A few village roads for some 20 km in what seemed to be a dull and dark evening took us to our next stop – Kottur. I had to abandon my plan to visit Thirukalar as it seemed to be a touch and go. The darshan at Kottur was followed by a visit to Thiruvanduthurai temple enroute Mannargudi.

We finally reached Mannargudi at 7.35 PM. My train was at 8.20 PM. I decided to run inside first, finish my darshan of Rajagopalaswamy, take the van and get dropped at station before sending it back to the temple for Madras gang to use it. It all happened at rapid pace – I had already changed my dhoti to a pant by stopping the van in a dark niche along the main road enroute, so it was easy for me to walk fast. I saw the gang entering the temple at a leisurely pace near the fourth prakaram on my way back to the van. I boarded the van at 7.55 PM, went to an ATM, withdrew money and settled Selva at 8 PM, and finally reached the station at 8.05 PM with 15 minutes to go. Train started sharp at 8.20 PM. It had an extended halt at Nidamangalam Junction, where there is a reversal - I bought a packet of poori and a packet of chappathi for my dinner. I was awake till Tiruchi, where a wave of hands and (cell phone torch) lights happened from my PF2 to Deepak who was in PF5 – his Boat Mail was eagerly waiting for my Chemmozhi Express to roll in. My train got delayed by an hour at Erode due to a signal failure at Virapandi Road station. I reached Coimbatore at 5.30 AM, late by 45 minutes.

A quick connect with the Madras gang revealed that they had a wonderful sevai of Perumal, got some time to play with the temple elephant Sengamalam and also found a group that was playing cricket in the sixth prakaram of the temple – they managed to bully them and got some ‘OC gaaji’. They finally boarded Mannai Express at 10 PM after having a good dinner in the town and reached Madras around 5 AM the next day.

A first time two-day affair got concluded in style, with the anugraham of all deities in the thousands and thousands of temples in the delta. As the saying goes, “avan aruLaaley avan thaaL vanangi”. Nothing could happen without divine grace.

I hope it only gets better in the next edition of 2020. Thanks for your patient reading. Feel free to drop your comments in the comments section.