Panchabhootha sthalams - the 5 elements

Mandapam on the right is made of Rudrakshas - very artistic!!

Panchabhootha sthalams are five ancient temples in India where Lord Shiva is represented in the form of five elements – Air, Earth, Ether, Fire and Water.
The following are the five temples that represent Shiva in the form of five elements:

Air – Sri Kalahasti Temple at Kalahasti in Andhra Pradesh – Vayu Linga represents the element air or wind here. A continuous flame flickers when there is no air source in the interior of the temple.

Earth – Ekambareswara Temple in Kanchipuram – Shivalingam here is the element earth.It is believed to have been created by Goddess Parvathi from sand or earth.

Ether – Nataraja Temple at Chidambaram – Shiva is represented as ether or sky in an empty space. I mentioned this in my post on Chidambaram (as the Chidambara rahasyam}. Ether is known as ‘akasha’ in Sanskrit and is also referred as Sky (or Space) .


Fire – Arunachaleswara Temple or Annamalaiyar Temple at Thiruvannamalai – Here, Shiva represents the element fire.

Water – Jambukeshwara Temple or Thiruvanaikaval Shiva Temple in Srirangam – Jambukeshwara represents the element water. The deity is found under a Jambu tree over a small river. The small stream engulfs the idol during the rainy season.

I have seen all the five lingams mentioned above. Our future plan is to cover all of the 12 Jyothirlingam Temples. Of the 12, we have seen Srisailam, Kedarnath and Varanasi (during our Chardham trip) and Rameswaram . The Northern most is the Kedarnath Temple and the Southern most is the Rameswaram Temple. It sounds more exciting when you document like this!!!

Rameswaram

Now I am visible!!

No, Nirmala was not the photographer. We found a stranger who volunteered to take one.

I want to mention here that I am not posting in the order that we visited. Whichever place comes to my mind at the time I post, that is where we are going. Today, I would like to take you to Rameswaram. The drive was beautiful. I love waters, especially the water that makes sound - either water falls or water waves!!

Before giving an account of my experience, I want to add these.
This Shiva Temple (Shivasthalam) is one of the 12 Jyotirlingams and the southernmost one.

This was my second visit to Rameswaram. The first one was in 1987 with my friend Sulochana and my two children. My parents visited here in the early fifties and I still have the sea shells that they brought home. I was with them during their trip to Varanasi, but they left us behind for this trip.

This temple is mentioned in the Ramayana and is of historic and spiritual importance. It is famous for long corridors and towers. There are 36 teerthams (I am not sure about the number) out of which 22 are in the Temple compund. These waters have medicinal value, they say. It is said that Rama worshipped Shiva here before returning to his kingdom in Ayodhya. There are two lingams here. One installed by Rama himself (made of sand or earth by Sita) is called Ramalingam and the other brought by Hanuman from Kasi (Varanasi) is called kasilingam. Why two lingams? Well, Hanuman was sent on this errand to Kasi. But the auspicious moment was arriving and Rama anticipated a delay in Hanuman's return and decided to go ahead with the pooja. The Kasi lingam is also called Hanuma lingam.

The architecture is awesome. the Nandi (the bull) is huge. Probably 18X20 feet. The gopuram (tower?) is about 125 feet tall.T he corridors are probably the longest in the world. I have taken some photos of these corridors and will add them later. There are more than 4000 pillars in these corridors. A must see. We were told that these rocks were imported from other parts of Tamil Nadu and are not local to that area. There is a lot modern history attached to this Temple. You can visit other sites for more details.
More to come............

General Information

See the driver in the middle!!!!! Click on any photo to see it enlarged.

I know that I wrote that we did not make any advance hotel reservations. we did not have any problem finding good ones after some search and after more driving. having come to the conclusion that our driver had no knowledge of the province.

But we went during rainy, non-peak season. If at all possible, I would advise that you make some arrangement. Another thing disappointing to me was that no hotel served a full meal for dinner. Only Tiffin (palaharam) type. Dosa, Idli, parata, poori etc. I got tired of it after a few nights. Lunch time meals were great!! I finished my Granola bars too soon. Before we started on this trip we were told by some of our relatives that drinking water could be a problem in Tamil Nadu. But each hotel we stayed in supplied us with good supply of water to drink, hot water to bathe etc. We spent very little money on bottled water on this trip. We spent a lot on our Chardham trip. Most of the hotels were located near shopping areas, internet service facilities, pharmacies (drug stores), auto rickshaw and Taxi stands.

If any of you have useful advice, please feel free to post your comments.

Swamimalai etc.

Nirmala's research and list said that we visit atleast six Subrahmanya Swami (Murugan) Temples. Swamimalai was one of them - which being close to Kumbakonam, we covered in this trip. There are many in the Southern states of India. I remember the following names in Tamilnadu: Tiruparamkundram, Thiruchendur, Swamimalai (Swaminatha Swami), Palani (Dandayudhapani) and Tiruthani Temples. When my sister was working as a professor in Palani, I visited the Palani Subrahmanya Temple, the first time. When we were students in SV University, Nirmala and I visited the Tiruttani temple a few times. Thiruchendur Murugan Temple, I visited with my children and my friend Sulochana in 1987.

Swamimalai temple: This is about 10 km from Kumbakonam. The story goes that this is where Murugan taught the meaning of "OM" to His father Lord Shiva. This was the first time I came here. His consorts are Valli and Devayani. This is another thing that intrigued me. In Andhra, we say Devasena not Devayani. Also, Devayani was Sukra's (the guru of Demons = raakshsasa) daughter who married the king Yayati. for those who want to know more, please click on the names. It is a long story and from the epic Mahabharata.


Thiruvalansuzhi Vinayakar Temple: Actually, this is more of Shiva Temple, but is famous for the Vinayaka sculpture which is white in color. Normally, all the statues are black or dark slate color (For those of you who don't know). This is located about 4 kms from Kumbakonam and is very close to Swamimalai. The speciality of this Temple is that the river Kaveri (Cauvery) prayed to Lord Siva by doing apradakshinam (doing pradakshinam from right to left. Normally in any Temple, we do it from left to right, which is clockwise)) The name for lord Siva in this temple is "Sadai mudi nathar".

Most of the Tamilians know about Avvaiyar, a great devotee of Murugan. I still remember my father taking me (when we were visiting my relatives in Chennai) to see this movie about her devotion and how Lord Muruga came in the form of a young boy to test her devotion. In those days, I did not understand much Tamil. But, we both had interest in listening to the music. She was a poetess also.

More Temples around Kumbhakonam

Nageswara Temple is another small one where Lord Shiva is worshipped and we saw a Temple for Rahu also (one of the nine celestial bodies in the Navagraha. [Actually, we saw Temples for all the major planets. Sun (Surya), Moon (Soma or Chandra), Venus (Sukra, is a male in Vedic astrology), Jupiter (Guru), Mercury (Budha), Saturn (Sani). Mars (Kuja) plus the nodes (Rahu and Ketu)]

The attraction in this Temple is Shiva is worshipped in several forms. On the North, which means South facing is that of Lord Dakshinamurti (Shiva as teacher), on the west Ardhanarishvara (Shiva and Shakti in one figure) and Brahma on the south. Almost life-size sculptures of some devotees, donors or royalty are carved along the corridors. I did not see any history written about them. The Nataraja shrine here is shaped in the form of a chariot, and the shrine dedicated to the Sun God.

Other Temples we saw included that of Shiva as Pathala Beejanatha. Pralayakaala Rudra and that of Kaali.

We were told that the Sun's rays fall on Nageswara on the 11th through the 13th day of the Tamil month Chithirai (Aries).
We were there in the winter month of November, so, did not witness this.

The temples at Thirunageswaram:
There are two major temples at Thirunageswaram. One is that of Oppliyappan, which is one of the famous 108 Divyadesams.
The other is that of ThiruNageswara. I don't remember much about these Temples.

The list of all the Temples we saw is so huge, I am surprised that I am able to keep track of this much.

Kumbakonam Temples

Kumbakonam is known as the City of temples as there are a few thousand temples in and around Kumbakonam.
The Kumbeswara is the largest and the oldest Shiva temples located in the center of the town of Kumbakonam. The presiding deity of this temple is Lord Kumbeswara and the presiding Goddess is Sri Mangalambigai. There is a shrine dedicated to Adi Vinayaka (Lord Ganesh).
It is a huge and colorful Temple with intricate carvings. The Mahamaham festival takes place here once every 12 years during the Tamil Month of Masi (February/March), when pilgrims from all over India visit Kumbakonam to take a holy bath in the sacred Mahamaham tank located in the heart of the town. We were not there during that season. But we met with the Sabari Malai crowd. Where ever we went, they were ahead of us in their black clothes in most of the Temples, starting from Kapilateertham in Tirupathi.

Sarangapani Temple:
The next Temple we saw was of Lord Sarangapani (his consort Komalavalli) a Vaishnavite temple. It is twelve storied close to 150 feet high and was built during the 15th century (some claim as 13th century). The architecture again is superb. Click here to see the broader view of the Temple.
This temple is the largest of the Vishnu temples in Kumbakonam. It is among the 108 Tirupatis. First Srirangam, then Tirupathi and the third in line is of Sarangapani. The shrine is in the form of a chariot. The beautiful tank adjoining this Temple is called Hema Pushkarini and on the other side of which was Adi Kumbeshwara temple. A hundred-pillar hallway (I did not count) from the seventeenth century was awesome. We enter through a twelve-storied pyramidal gopuram which is one of the largest gopurams in South India. We saw the statues of many Alwars here.

Someswara Temple
Someswar Temple is situated in the southern portion of Sri Sarangapani temple, facing East. It has two entrances, one on the East side and the other on the South side. Gopuram is five-tiered. Arumugam and Thenar Mozhi Ammal are the deities in this temple. To me this Temple's gopuram looked very different from that of the others (Sarangapani, Chakrapani and Ramaswamy)

In very close proximity to the Sarangapani Temple are that of Ramaswamy and Chakrapani.

Ramaswamy Temple:
Here the main attraction is the the paintings of Ramayana. The story goes that the only temple where Lord Rama, Sita are in the same platform and Lord Hanuman is playing the veena instead of reading the Ramayana. The entire deity is said to be made from Saligrama monolith. Again, the intricacy of the carvings on the pillars is exquisite. In most of these Temples, no photography and no foreigners were allowed after a certain point. So, I stopped taking the camera with me altogether.

Chakrapani Temple:
This Temple is situated about 1.5 km from Ramaswamy Temple. The main deity is Chakraraja (his consort Vijayavalli). The uniqueness of this Temple is that Bilwa pooja (which is normally done in Shiva Temples) is done for Vishnu who is in the form of Chakrapani) Here, the Chakra stands for the Sudarsana Chakra.

By the way, at this point, I have to mention that our driver finished his worship and darsans ahead of us. He spent some of his daily allowance (that Nirmala handed over to him) on CDs. He was supposed use that money for his food and lodging. Since he was eating with us, we paid for his meals and slowly, I saw him using the hotel room occupied by Rao and his brother (we paid for the extra bed) - hence he had extra money in his wallet. I added this bulletin just to break the monotony of my Temple stories. Also, he changed into black clothes and when I asked him , he said that he was doing the Sabari Malai diksha.

Now last, but not the least was Kasi Viswanatha Temple.

This Temple is situated very close to the Mahamaham tank. Here the main deity is Kasi Viswanatha (Visalakshi is the consort).
I remembered the Viswanatha Temple of Varanasi. (These two names used to be very common for children in our families. Actually, my mother's name was Visalakshi and one of my nephews who lives in Chennai is named after Viswanatha). There were statues of nine kanyakas (virgins) which are the 9 holy rivers, namely Ganga, Godavari, Kaveri, Krishna, Narmada, Saraswati, Sarayu , Tungabhadra and Yamuna. Also, to be noted is the fact that the sthala lingam was present in the southern part of the temple. It was worshipped by Ravana and is believed to grow with ages.

Vaideeswaran and The Temple for Mars (Kuja)

Please read the Chidambaram post again. i added some at the end (on May 30th).

I heard this Temple's name mentioned by my Tamil friends in the USA. The first offering of the hair (Tonsuring – the act of shaving your head to propitiate God) is a family tradition for some here. In my family, we do it in Tirumalai. Also, this town is famous for the Naadi shastra and we saw signs along the road advertising this. I was very excited because not only that I had interest, but also I had experienced the truth of this Naadi shastra in 1995 in Tirupathi (same Agasthya Naadi). Our driver's eyes brightened and wanted to know whether we would like to stop for a reading. I knew we needed a whole day for that - so, we said "no".

This Temple is very ancient, dedicated to Shiva. Vaideeswaran literally means the divine provider of cures (vaidya in Sanskrit meaning doctor). The main deities are Shiva as Vaideeswaran, Parvathi as Taiyal Nayaki and Subrahmanya as Muthukumara.
In addition there is a Temple for Mars (Kujaor Angaraka) which I was surprised to see there. Due to my interest in Astronomy and Astrology, I was overjoyed.

All the Carnatic music lovers know about Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar and his compostions. It is said of Muthuswamy Dikshitar that when his vision was impaired, Lord Subrahmanya appeared in his dream and told him to go over to Vaideeswaran Koil and seek the blessings of the Lord. You can hear this in his kriti, ``Muthukumaraiyane...'', written in Tamil.

In one corner of the compound, we saw Jatayu gundam where supposedly Rama cremated Jatayu (whose wings were cut off by Ravana). Of the 63 shrines along the banks of Kaveri, Vaideeswaran Temple attracts most visitors.

The interesting part I noticed was Vaideeswara faces West, the Goddess faces South. The painted figures of Vrishabha, conch etc, are exquisite carvings. There were several theerthams around this Temple, but we did not take a dip in any. The only name I remembered was Kodanda theertham. In the Southern enclosure, we had darsan of Ganapathi (Karpaga Vinayakar) whom we worship first before worshipping the presiding deities. As we did the pradakshinam (going around the prakaram) and as we approached the Eastern gopuram, we saw the famous Neem tree (Sthala Vriksha) and we did go around that tree also. There are innumerable statues in every Temple and I did not even attempt keeping track of all of them.

More coming................