This Young Vaikanasa Agama Priest is following in the footsteps of his father and great grand father committing to a lifetime archaka service at this historic temple for Kalinga Narthana
The Perumal temple at Oothukadu is a legendary and one of its kind temple dedicated exclusively to Kalinga Narthana, located just under 15kms from Kumbakonam off the Avoor – Melattur- Thittai Highway. It was here that Venkatakavi composed many of his memorable compositions.
Legendary Tale
Legend has it that this was once a Pushpa Vanam. Residing at the Kailasanatha temple in Aavoor, Nandini and Patti, the children of Kamadhenu, were providing milk to the Lord. Every morning, the two would also graze across to the nearby Oothukadu Village (2kms away) and collect flowers for the Lord from the Pushpa Vanam.
On one such occasion, the two little ones listened to Sage Narada’s narration of the story of Lord Krishna and his Kalinga Narthana. Hearing the story of the five year old (Child) Krishna taking on the poisonous asura snake (Kalinga) and performing the Kalinga Narthana, Nandini and Patti are said to have broken out into tears for the hardship and the onerous task imposed on the little boy Krishna.
Worried about her children, Kamadhenu approached Krishna at Vaikuntam seeking a solution to her children’s shocked state of mind. Responding to her request, Krishna appeared here at the Pushpa Vanam at Oothukadu and performed yet again, with ease, the Kalinga Narthana in front of a delighted Nandini and Patti thus convincing them that this was a child’s play for him.
Wanting all the devotees to enjoy this unique form of Krishna, Narada requested the Lord to be present here at Oothukadu as Kalinga Narthana. Narada is believed to have installed the idol of Krishna as Kalinga Narthana with Nandini and Patti standing on either side of the Lord in front of him and referred to this place as ‘Then Gokulam’.
Dark Years
In the 1990s, when Jayaraman Bhattar took charge as the archaka of this historic temple at a monthly salary of Rs. 37, it was in a terrible state. He recounts to this writer on his early experience at such an historic temple “There were no devotees at the temple, no thattu kaasu and no salary to the priest in the 1980s and the early 90s. Multiple priests had come and gone. My Thatha had performed Thiru Aradhanam at this temple before the temple turned for the worse in the 2nd half of the previous century. The outgoing priests were keen for me to take up the archaka service but I was hesitant given the state of the temple at that time.”
Jayaraman Bhattar had been working in the corporate space for a few years when a Kainkaryam message from his appa was to transform his life towards devotional service at the feet of Kalinga Narthanar, for ever.
Perform Archaka Service, Not my final rites!!!
“The scenario at the temple was bleak and it had been locked for a few months with no archaka forthcoming to perform service. When my appa heard this news, he asked me to quit my job and take up archaka service at Oothukadu. I repeatedly refused citing the poor financial scenario at the temple and the lack of devotees.”
“Finally he came up to me and said that Kalinga Narthana Perumal had fed the family for several decades through the service of his appa. And that it was okay even if I did not perform his final rites but that I should take up a lifetime of Kainkaryam at the Oothukadu Perumal temple. He said that I could forego anything in this life but not the Kainkaryam to Kalinga Narthanar.”
Unique Posture of the Lord
An interesting feature at this temple is the posture of Kalinga Narthana - his left leg is seen on top of the Asura Snake but not touching the snake. His left thumb alone is holding the tail of the snake with none of his other four fingers in contact with the tail!! His right leg is seen above the ground in a dance posture. On a close look, one can find the scars on his leg below the knee, the result of his fight with Kalinga.
That message turned out to be transformational as Jayaraman Bhattar quit his job and joined the temple as an archaka at a monthly salary of Rs. 37!!! But as the Bhattar recalls, his appa made a futuristic financial commitment to him “He told me and my brother that if I take up this temple service during the dark years at the temple he would give me additional assets whenever his savings was split between my brother and me, sometime later in life.”
His appa passed away a couple of months ago at the age of 97 but as committed, he did provide an additional share to Jayaraman Bhattar for his selfless kainkaryam during the bleak period at the temple.
In that early phase, he also received a sambhavanai from the Venkatakavi Trust in Mylapore.
The great Venkata Kavi lived here
The Kalinga Narthana temple at Oothukadu has a significant connection with the music world. It was living here in Oothukadu that Venkata (Kavi) Subba Iyer composed many of his memorable and to-date unforgettable songs on Krishna including specific ones on Kalinga Narthana of Oothukadu.
Jayaraman Bhattar recounts the first day he entered the Sannidhi as an archaka just over three decades ago “There were cobwebs, rats and cockroaches inside the sanctum. There was no oil to light the lamp and I would light one ‘agal vilakku’ and use that to present at all sannidhis and then switch off so that I could use it again the next day. The vastrams of the deities were torn. The temple was dark after 6pm. And there were no devotees or thattu kaasu. Thirumanjanam had long stopped. And utsavams too.”
Luring Devotees Back
All these saddened him and having taken the decision to perform the Kainkaryam, he took to reviving the temple. The madapalli was in a terrible state and he made ven Pongal from his house in Haridwara Mangalam and presented it to Perumal at Oothukaadu. He describes at the way he went about it “The most important aspect at that stage was to get devotees back into the temple. And I thought about how I could do that. I approached prominent astrologers across the state and requested them to direct their customers to this temple. I went to multiple cities in the state and met the owners of temple travel agencies and asked them to consider including Oothukadu in their Chozha temple trip schedule.”
He was buoyed by the fact that devotees actually went back and wrote postal letters as to how a wedding had taken place when it had earlier seemed unlikely and how there was childbirth in their house after sankalpa archanai at the Sannidhi. “Only then I realised the greatness of Kalinga Narthana and what a blessed state I was in to be performing Thiru Aradhanam at this temple” says Jayaraman Bhattar sitting at his house that he rebuilt last decade.
These two initiatives led devotees to visit the temple. When devotees reaped success from the sankalpa archanai, they spread the word to other devotees. And thus by the turn of the century, a regular stream of devotees began visiting the temple. It also coincided with the devotional wave that was striking TN temples.
For the visiting devotees, his wife cooked homely food and served lunch as this was a remote temple and there were no restaurants available in the near vicinity in those days. This friendly initiative too struck a chord with the devotees.
Getting Ubayadarars back - Revival of Utsavams
He then looked at the list of historical Ubayadarars who had been associated with the temple during his Thatha’s Kainkaryam days and tried to reach out to them. Many of them were now in high paying jobs and they expressed happiness to be reassociated with the temple.
Monthly Thirumanjanam began to become a regular feature. He then went about reviving the Krishna Jayanthi utsavam starting off on a small scale. Following this, he revived the Uriyadi utsavam bringing the local community together for the event.
During the dark years at Oothukadu and after seeing him perform kainkaryam at this temple, there were overseas archaka service offers for Jayaraman Bhattar but having committed to his appa to a lifetime service to Kalinga Narthanar, he rejected those lucrative offers.
In the initial phase of his temple kainkaryam, he would cycle 12 kms from Haridwara Mangalam, where his appa resided performing Kainkayaram in the Varadaraja Perumal temple there “In that period, when the cycle tyre punctured, I did not have money and paid the shop in instalments. Such were the financial challenges at that time.”
Massive Restoration Exercise
Having fully entrenched himself into the temple activity, he decided to take up the renovation work at the temple. The physical infrastructure at the temple had been poor for a long time and he began reaching out to devotees to contribute to the renovation exercise. And the ensuing consecration just over a decade ago saw a remarkable transformation of the temple with a beautiful Sannidhi for Venkatakavi, a stage for musicians and dancers to showcase their artistic skills, depicting Krishna’s legendary childhood tale in the form of painting around the Sannidhi (a story on this by this writer featured in The Hindu Friday Review at that time).
The Krishna Jayanthi Utsavam has now turned into a grand celebration with annadhanam for several hundreds of devotees. Every Rohini, there is a Thirumanjanam. The devotee numbers have shot up as well since the consecration. This margazhi devotees have come in good numbers early in the morning to recite Thiruppavai and for the Pongal from the now restored Madapalli.
Prarthana Sthalam
This temple is believed to be a Prarthana Sthalam for upcoming music and dance artistes. Kalinga Narthana is said to fulfill all their prayers and bring them success in their art. This is also believed to be a Prarthana Sthalam for the unmarried as well as childless couples. A visit to the Kalinga Narthana temple will liberate one from Rahu and Kethu doshams and Sarpa Dosham as well.
While Jayaraman Bhattar himself was a reluctant entrant into the temple in the early 1990s, having experienced Kalinga Narthanar, he was keen for his son to follow in his footsteps and moved him into the Madurantakam Patshala/Oriental school after his class V. And then for a brief period to the Dayananda Saraswathi Vaikanasa Agama patshala in Kudavasal. But the most important agama and life lessons came from his thatha as the now 32 year old Sundararaman Bhattar recounts “My thatha (Rajam Bhattar) was a Vaikasana agama expert and he was renowned for the way he performed consecrations in the traditional way. I was blessed to have been personally initiated into the agama by him through a Gurukulam model of learning. He knew the sastras inside out, believed, practiced and shared it with those following the Vaikanasa agamas.”
While he went out for consecration, Brahmotsavam, Pavitrotsavam and homam events over the last decade, he has now committed himself to being full time as an archaka at the Kalinga Narthana temple following in his appa’s and great grand father’s footsteps. There was money to be earned in those events outside but he has put those aside now to focus all his devotional energy on Kalinga Narthana even though his monthly salary is only Rs. 1000!!! Even that was possible only due to the efforts of the then EO Prabhakar, now at Nachiyar Koil.
His devotional attachment with Kalinga Narthana Perumal led him to go deep into the scriptures on Vyasa’s teachings and based on his research, he has now got into Pravachanam on the legendary tales of Radha and Krishna through his youtube channel – Krishnanandham.
Unfortunately, there is a lingering issue for those like him in remote temple towns, one that does not seem to have an immediate solution. Parents of prospective brides are not coming forward to hand their daughters to priests who are committing a lifetime service to historic remote temples. While his parents have cast their net wide, daughters of priests and even his own relatives are unwilling to take this positive step forward.
Sundar Bhattar is unmindful of this and says his focus is on performing Kainkaryam at the feet of Kalinga Narthanar all through his life. And that’s great commitment from a youngster at a time when those even in Divya Desams are heading Northwards into the corporate space and away from temples.
How to reach Oothukadu
Buses every half hour between Kumbakonam and Aavoor. The temple is about 2kms from Aavoor. Auto from Kumbakonam Railway Station/Bus stand costs Rs. 500.
