Celebrating Desikar, Ramanujar and the Azhvaars
Narayanan Bhattar drives revival of Acharya and Azhvaar utsavams after several decades
15 years ago, when Narayanan Bhattar quit the Ramar temple in Tambaram to take over the reigns of archaka service from his appa, the Santhanaramar temple in Nidamangalam was in a dilapidated state. Most of the utsavams had stopped. Almost all the original traditional inhabitants had left this town to larger cities in search of greener pastures. There were no devotees at the temple. Narayanan Bhattar had been earning well at the temple in Chennai and he returned to Nidamangalam for a monthly salary of just over Rs. 1000.
He had a lot of experience in handling devotees at the temple in Chennai and was determined to turnaround the fortunes of this temple but he found it a bigger challenge than he had visualised. He had to double up as the cook at the madapalli too straddling between providing darshan to the few devotees who were beginning to turn up at the Ramar Sannidhi and to managing the boiling Pongal at the sacred kitchen.
The physical infrastructure was restored through support from devotees and consecration performed. During this period, he also revived the annual utsavams including the vahana processions at the Panguni Brahmotsavam.
The temple is said to date back to the Chozha period with the Garbha Graha having existed then but the current structure goes back to the late 18th century and the construction by the Thanjavur king Pratap Simha.
The Lord appeared in the dreams of the King and asked him to look for an idol of Ramar at this location. The King and his wife Rani Yamunambal were childless. He came here and found the idol beneath the eart. After invoking the blessings of the Lord, she gave birth to a child. Hence the Lord is referred to as Santhana Ramar, a unique name for Lord Rama. This location was historically referred to as Yamunambal Puram.
The belief is that those who invoke the blessings of Lord Rama and Sita Devi will be blessed with a child. Every Rohini, there is a Putra Santhana Gopala homam. This is a very special event at the temple and devotees visit in good numbers on the Rohini day every month.
Muthuswamy Dikshithar has presented a song in praise of Santhanaramar in Hindola Vasantha Ragam. The famous Tavil Vidwan Meenakshi Sundaram belonged to this place.
After recovering from a knee surgery a couple of years ago, Narayanan Bhattar has this month revived the monthly Thirumanjanam for Thiru Mangai Azhvaar on the Karthigai day in Chitrai through support from a Bangalore based devotee. Just over a fortnight from now, he is also planning to revive the monthly Thirumanjanam for Vedantha Desikar on the Shravanam day in Chitrai through a support from a Chennai based devotee. These are two big milestones in his service as an archaka at the Santhanaramar temple for these events had long stopped and he did not visualise a revival of these.
On Sunday (April 19) morning, he came to the temple early in the morning to prepare Kesari and Puliyotharai ahead of the Thirumanjanam for Thiru Mangai Azhvaar. Through a tech savvy college student, Narayanan Bhattar has been updating details of the upcoming utsavams and that has led to local devotees making it to the temple to experience the Thirumanjanam that this generation of residents in Nidamangalam had not experienced.
At 9am, in the presence of a few local devotees, he began the Thirumanjanam of Thiru Mangai Azhvaar. Being all alone at the temple, he also trebled up as a vedic member and a prabhandham member reciting Periyazhvaar's verse on the oil bath
வெண்ணெய் அலைந்த குணுங்கும்
விளையாடு புழுதியும் கொண்டு .....
எண்ணெய் புலிப் பழம் கொண்டு
எத்தனை போதும் இருந்தேன்
On a hot Sunday morning, he cooled Thiru Mangai Azhvaar with Coconut water, Sandalwood Paste, Tumeric Paste and Panchamritham.
காயய்சின நீரோடு நெல்லி கடாரத்தில்
பூரித்து வைத்தேன்…………………………..
மஞ்சளும் செங்கழுநீரின் வாசிகையும்
நாறு சாந்தும் அஞ்சனமும் கொண்டு வைத்தேன் - Periyazhvaar on Oil Bath
Much to the delight of the local devotees, he also took Sankalpam from each of them and presented an archanai. An hour later, he handed over Puliyotharai and Kesari to the devotees who were all praise of the commitment of Narayana Bhattar in the way he has gone about reviving the utsavams without too much physical support.
While in Phase 1 of his taking over the reigns from his appa, he saw to the restoration of the physical infrastructure and the revival of the big annual utsavams, in this current phase, after his own recovery from a knee surgery, he is committing himself to revival the azhvaar and archarya utsavams so these legends are remembered at least once a month on their star birthdays and their verses presented on these days. And days such as the one today with a Thirumanjanam and Garuda Sevai procession on the occasion of Akshaya Trithiyai.
It is through the efforts of committed priests such as Narayana Bhattar that remote temples in Tamil Nadu are continuing to survive with the historical events being organised as best as possible in the scenario that exits today.
The temple is open from 7am-11am and 5pm-8pm. Contact: Narayanan Bhattar @ 94448 54208.
No comments:
Post a Comment