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Thiru ArimEya viNNagaram - thala purAnam - part 1 of 3

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sampath Rengarajan • Tue May 07 1996 - 12:23:28 PDT 


This is one of the 11 divya desams situated around thirunaangoor,
near seerkaazhi. One can reach here from mayavaram or chidambaram
by bus or taxi and visit all the other divya desams also in this
area. one can reach chidambaram or mayavaram by bus or train from
Madras.

Thiru arimEya viNNagaram: The Lord in thiru arimEya viNNagaram is known
as kudamaadu kooththan.  The moolavar is in thailak kaappu thirumEni and
is in sitting posture facing east. The ursavar is gOpalan with chathur
bujams. (Sri. Vijay Srinivasan, please note). Thayaar is amrutha
"kada"valli and the theerththam are kOdi theerththam, and "amrutha"
theerththam. The vimaanam is utasa shrunga vimaanam. Uththanga muni did
penance here and had the darshan of this Lord as gOpalan. Though this
is documented as arimEya viNNagaram it is popularly known in this
neighborhood as kudamaadu kooththan only.  This is one of the 11
temples that are grouped in a select way and the garuda sErvai that is
conducted together for all these 11 kShethrams are popularly known as 11
garuda sErvai. Sri PD had presented details of this sEvai earlier and
touched upon "manchu virattu" (PD, pl correct me if this
word is wrong) festival celebrated every year during
this garuda sErvai signaling the arrival of thirumangai in the paddy
fields of this area. In marking this vijayam of aazhwaar they believe
that it is going to bring them good monsoon and harvest ahead for the
subsequent seasons and hence they dance in joy, inturn  this dancing
 is also dubbed as "kooththaadal" by local people.

The 11 garuda sErvai is so popular that it is considered that if one
would have the darshan of this event it is equivalent to having the
darshan of these 11 kshethrams as well. Sri PD had presented the
details on current festivities observed during this occasion.  I had
promised him that I shall present the puraaNam behind these 11 garuda
sErvai that is in a way unique and is known as 11 in 1. In line with
that I shall attempt to present some details. This place is situated
between the kauveri in the south and maNiyaaru in the north. Hence it
is also called as "ubaya kaiveri maththimam".

The puraaNam can be derived from the sanskrit words

svamayam boothasath yAnE
thvaadhasa vibathvaanE
ekAdhasAnAm  rudhrAnAm
boothas saNyAnE

Once in boolOgam thatchcchan the father of parashakthi, performed a
yaagam. Since he didn't invite his son-in-law Lord shiva for this
yaagam, parvathi convinced Lord shiva that she will advise thatchchan
and ask him to invite him. However, thatchan wouldn't listen to her and
instead uttered many abuses at Lord Shiva. It is said that
Parvathi, who got upset by this not only stopped the yagam but also
disposed thatchchan, and returned to Lord shiva.  Lord Shiva was not
pleased on knowing what had happened and was very very unhappy and
restless and started to dance his "oozhik kaala nadanam" which was kind
of making the entire world tremble and attempting to fall apart in the
process of destruction. When Lord shivaa's lock of hair would touch the
ground each time another Lord Shiva appeared and started the dancing
thereby intensifying the magnitude. The time was not ripe for this
universal destruction action and the only one who commands this was
Lord Vishnu.  dEvaas, and rishis, prayed to HIM, and requested HIM to
prevail and save the boolOgam.


	Lord Naraayana appeared in the middle of shiva as the
paramapatha naathan and shiva stopped his dance atonce. (There is also a
possible account that Lord Narayanaa also appeared here in his carrier
garudan simultaneously in 11 different thiruvuravamas as against 11 shivaas
each with same thiruvurvam. (ie  in 11 replicas).
And that on seeing this and as well one of the 11
such thiruvuruvam being the form of the Lord who performed
eternal cosmic dance under govardana giri, shiva stopped dancing and
all the seismic effects also were attenuated by this Lord instantly).
He then requested Lord Narayana to also appear 11 times as similar to
him and reside in this area for ever. Within a fraction of second the
Lord fulfilled this and our Lord appeared simultaneously in 10 other
places.  On seeing this Shivaa requested the Lord also to appear as the
eKadesa moorthy and the Lord fulfilled this also. After this each of
the Lord made one shiva go into the other and confined all the other
images of Shiva into one shiva only and also made him accept parvathi.
There is one shiva temple in this neighborhood symbolizing shiva
worshipping these 11 DD's.

	The presiding deity (or deities) who first came here in his garuda
vaahanam and later simultaneously appeared in 10 other kshethrams is the
naarayanap perumal for the manimaadak kOil whose deity is Lord Badrinaaryanan
HIMself. (Incidentally I am encouraged to write this at this time due to the
request from our Sri Badri on koththaadu. thanks Sri Badri).
(note: please wait for my attempt to provide a
viLakkam on "koththaadu" in part 2 and part 3
of this post).

The 11 perumals who came here are as follows.

11 kshethrams	          Lords name                came from

1.maNimaadak kOil       naarayanp perumal           Badri
2.arimEya viNNagaram    kudamaadu kooththar         gOvarththana giri
3.vaikuntha viNNagaram  Sri vaikundanathan          paramapatham
4.veNpurdOthathama      purudOththamar as SriRama   ayOdhi
5.semponsEykOvil        semponrangar as ahzhzgiya   uRaiyoor
                        maNavaaLan
6.thiruveLLkkulam       aNNankOil Annan             thiruppathi
7.thiruth theRRiyam     senganmaal ranganaathar      srirangam
  balam
8.thiruth thEvanaarth   theyva naayagan             thiru vadanthai
  thogai
9.thiruk kaavaLambadi   rukmani samethara gOpala    dwaraka
  or keezhach chaalai   krishnan
10.thirumaNik koodam    varatharajap perumal        kanchipuram
11. thirup parthanpaLLI paarthasarathi              gurukshethram

Thirumangai had delivered 10 paasurams on this Lord.

vaNYchanaiyaal vanNdhavaLtha
 NnuyiruNdu vaayttha
 thayiruNdu veNNeyamu
 dhuNdu,vali mikka
kaNYchanuyi radhuvuNdiv
 vulaguNda kaaLai
 karudhumidam kaavirisanN
 dhagilkanaka munNdhi,
maNYchulavu pozhiloodum
 vayaloodum vanNdhu
 vaLangkoduppa maamaRaiyOr
 maamalargaL thoovi,
aNYchalitthaNG karisaraNen
 RiraiNYchumaNi nNaangkoor
 arimEya viNNagaram
 vaNangkumada nNeNYchE!     3.10.9
                            periya thirumozhi
This is the place where Hari is residing and is the viNNagaram.
All the great veda vaideehaas sprayed flowers and praised him
and worshipped him saying "hariyE saraNam". This sentiments were
earlier conveyed by AndaL

puLLum silambina kaaN puLLaraiyan kOyilil
veLLai viLi sangin pEraravam kEttilaiyO
piLLaay ezhundhiraay pEy mulai nanchundu
kaLLach chakatam kalakkazhiyak kaalOchchi
veLLaththaravil thuyilamarndha viththinai
"uLLaththuk kondu munivargaLum yOgigaLum
meLLa ezhundhu ari enRa pEraravam
uLLam pugundhu kuLirndhElOr embaavaay"
                            Thirup paavai

in this paasuram aNdaal observes these by

"uLLaththuk kondu munivargaLum yOgigaLum
meLLa ezhundhu ari enRa pEraravam
uLLam pugundhu kuLirndhElOr embaavaay".
Thirumangai had reiterated the same facts in the above paasurams.


This Lord has also appeared for destroying one' bad enemy and is also
known as "pagai neekkum paranthaaman". It is believed that those who want
to destroy their enemies pray to this Lord and he is believed to be a
varap prasaadhi for them.

"thirumadanNdhai maNmadanNdhai
 yirupaalum thigazhath
 theevinaigaL pOyagala
 adiyavargat kenRum
aruLnNadanNdhu",iv vEzhulagath
 thavarpaNiya vaanOr
 amarnNdhEttha irunNdhavidam
 perumpugazhvE dhiyarvaazh
tharumidangkaL malargaLmigu
 kaidhaigaLseng kazhunNeer
 thaamaraigaL thadangkadoRu
 midangkadoRum thigazha,
aruvidangkaL pozhilthazhuvi
 yezhilthigazhu nNaangkoor
 arimEya viNNagaram
 vaNangkumada nNeNYchE! (2)    3.10.1
                               periya thirmozhi

In the above paasuram thirumangai explicitly declares that this Lord
will give such boon for one who wants to defeat his enemies by saying

"thirumadanNdhai maNmadanNdhai
 yirupaalum thigazhath
 theevinaigaL pOyagala
 adiyavargat kenRum
aruLnNadanNdhu".

 The other 8 paasurams by thirumangai on this Lord also conveys the the
same theme that this Lord is varaprasadhi for pagai azhiththal, by
narrating the episodes of defeating auras in amritham churning for
devaas, destroying Iraavanan and killing boothanai. Hence this Lord
when prayed will bless one with specific boon to destroy their enemies.



sri amrutha "kada"valli thaayaar samEthara sri pagai neekkum paranthaaman
thiruvadikaLE saraNam

Sampath Rengarajan