Thiruverkadu, Maangadu, Mookambika

I should have written this post long before the other Tamil nadu posts. When I first landed in Chennai in October 2007, I expressed the desire to Mohan and Priya that I wanted to visit the Thiruverkadu Temple. They happily agreed to take me there. They were the ones who introduced me to this Temple. The first time I had darsan of Karumari Amman, the main deity there, was just before my daughter was married to their son (in 2004). Once again, we all - Mohan and Priya, Mohan's parents, Sridhar (their second son) and me were there. It is a small Temple in a small town.

Thiruverkadu literally means a forest of holy herbs and roots and is a western suburb of Chennai. We hired a Taxi for the trip.The Temple was crowded that day, but it was manageable. Special pooja sponsors were sitting in an enclosed area. The Devi idol was enchanting. Just outside the Temple was a huge snake pit. The three women in the group, we walked around the pit. There were offerings of milk, broken eggs for the snake (I am not sure anyone ever gets to see that snake). I could not bear the smell of eggs.
The next Temple was of Kamakshi Amman of Mangadu. Mangadu (meaning forest of mango trees)is a small town situated 24 Kms away from Chennai and all these three Temples are near Poonamallee.
In this Mangadu, the story goes that Goddess Sri Kamakshi came and started her penance standing on the PANCHAGNI in the midst of forest of Mango trees. Then Lord Siva appeared before her and married her at Kancheepuram. The local belief is that in the same way, if any unmarried woman, comes and offers vows to Sri Kamakshi, she gets married very soon. We witnessed some dance and music program by local students and famous artists like mandolin Srinivasan that day. My ears perked up with joy when I saw them perform dance to the kriti Kanjadalaayatakshi...., which was the first kriti I learnt in my high school music class. We moved on to the third Temple which was amore recent addition to the area.
At the Mookambika Temple, we were greeted very graciously. This particular location is called Panachikkadu (I don't know the meaning - all I know is kadu means forest). This Mookambika Temple is also known as Dakshina Mookambika. I guess this is fairly new at this location. (There is one in Kollur, Karnataka also). The Temple at Panachikkadu is dedicated to Goddess Saraswati, the Goddess of knowledge and learning and is very famous for 'Vidyarambham'. We met the lady who founded this in the South. She asked us to have a meal which was being served for free for many visitors. But we could not have it that day!!