The one constant trip of my life is the annual pilgrimage to our ancestral temple in Vazhuvoor (close by Mayiladurai). My family is one of the theist’s kind, to state it much subtly. Their devotion has to have floated around the corridors of almost every temple in Tamil Nadu. You would expect them to partake of the trends of this time, seeing their socioeconomic merit but you also see, the sociocultural distinction of our region is tied to the pride and spirituality of our temples. So naturally we walk our own to the temple every now and then, even to this day.
You never seem to run out of temples here though the one temple you shall never run away from would be your ancestral temple. For every clan or creed here, there is one exquisite temple built for them by their forefather(s). Now presumably such a temple would hold higher importance in our lives. As important as to make us periodically go there. You might also liken to the belief that the grace of your ancestral deity far exceeds the others on our imaginary pedestal. Our deity father, Vazhikarayan awaits us every year.
Legend has it that he was one of our great predecessors, one of our very own, who resided relatively closer to the origin of civilization. As the civilization took off, the smaller specks of evil lurking therein had begun rubbing together, heating up the plot for dereliction of morality soon. The prophetic predecessor of ours stood up to the feat of salvation of our people by immortalising himself in a pious stead. Thus began the legend of Vazhikarayan. His holiness now enshrined in the garbhagriha of the temple holds true the welfare of his people and time to come.
The town opening onto the interior village of the temple’s locality is a provincial town. The town is connected by wide roads and some mud roads too. You will find nominal traffic in public spaces as market place, bus stand, town centre et al. We pick few things up here for the feast to the deity, the flowers and edibles mostly, amongst others. Right after, we head off straight to the temple which should take us about an hour or lesser. The view on the way from town into the village is of thick trees lining the front of green fields and vegetation plots. Before you could take in as much greenness as your eyes can see and clean breeze your system can consume you would have reached your destination.
You will spot our temple adjoining the great temple of Veeratteswar. The temple institutionalising the legend of Lord Shiva where he tears open a mad elephant conjured by the sages of Thirukavanam whilst shunning down their disgraceful prides. This temple is also looked on as one of the heritage temples of the nation. Yes, because the deity- Lord Shiva appears to be in the same form as your visualisation of the legend aforementioned. Now back to the agenda in hand, we finish up with an intense Pooja at our temple. We place down our wishes and worries at his foot and take off to the next temple.
This bi-fanged, crimson skinned divine being is our deity father.
Comments