Sati Savithri in battlefield

kurukshetra

Temple Name : Devi Koop kali mandir

Devi : Sati savithri

Bhairava : Shthanu

Organ: right ankle

Sanskrit letter: “Naa”

How to reach :

Kurukshetra lies on the Delhi-Ambala stretch of the National Highway number, 160 km from Delhi.The nearest airport lies at Chandigarh, which is 116 km away. To reach Kurukshetra, one has to branch into Kurukshetra town along a state road, from the national highway at the Pipli cross-road. There are trains also halts here.

About the temple –

This legendary place has an immortal place in history of india. This is the place where great war between pandavas and Kauravawhich is described in mahabharatha epic and association with the Vedas and the Vedic Culture. Another thing is it is said krishna gave Gita to Arjuna. That place is now named as “Yotheeswar theert” which is about 8 km from railway station. There is a banyan tree with statues depicting Bheesmar on the throne bed.

There are totally 360 temples in kurukshetra around 48 miles. Brahma Sarovar,Sannihit Sarovar, Bhishma Kund at Naraktar,Ban Ganga are wonderful theerth around this holy place.

The shakthi peet “Devi koop mandir” is in Jaansa road near Sathanu Shiva Temple. The temple is in vast place has a long enternce which an arch welcoming us. In the entrance of the temple, we can see a well which said to be shakthi peet. This is usual in every shakthi peet, according to my experience; every shakthi peet is located as a water layer or nearby, the temple which should construct latter nearby a water media. There was some exception like sheer bhawani in srinnagar, dhraksrama in andhra, manosarovor in Kailash where water itself is worshipped as Devi.

There is an idol – leg portion of Devi seated on lotus with an umbrella on the top – is depicted near well, this is one of the few places among shakthi peet where organ is depicted in the temple. The main idol depicted inside the temple for Savithri is exactly in form of bhadra kali – tongue is out with sharp teeth either side, shiva lie down at her feet, but the face of Devi is still and calm. We can see the Bhairava image carved in right side of the main shrine, Ganapathi on another side.

There is a seperate shrine with linga installed on upstairs of this temple. Big fairs are held in the temple in the Indian months of ‘Chaitra’ and “Asuja” and in mahashivarathri and navrathri times.

Some other places to visit in this land are Jyotisar (The place where Geeta was preached), Narka-Tari Kund, Hanuman ji, Sarveshwar Mahadev, Brahma-Sarovar, DukhBanjneshwar, Suryakund, Biria Mandir, KuruPandu temple, Geeta Bhavan, Thaneshwar MahaDev etc.

Shakthi in Somnath

Somnath

Temple Name : Somnath temple

Devi : ChandraBhaga

Bhairava : Vakrathunda/Bhadresena

Organ: Abodomen 1st pack

Sanskrit letter: Jaa(1)

How to reach-

This is very near to veraval station (5 kilmomer) is well connected by roads and train from Ahmadabad(406 kilometer) and Dwaraka(230 kilomter).

About the place –

Somnath temple, one of the twelve Jyothirlingams, dedicated to Someshwara (moon on his head). This temple has a long history and in ancient texts, it was well described in the land of Saurashtra as Prabhas and also as madhureshwaram. I came along the way from Dwaraka to Harshid mata and then here via porbandhar. If we come by train, we can get down in verval station, otherwise in case of bus, we can step down in this temple stop.
It is believed that the Moon,Soma himself had originally built the temple out of gold. In some books, it refereed that Ravanan build it with gold, Krishna build it with silver in dwabara yug. It is said to be dwaraka is just 40 kilometer from prabhas. The place where lord Krishna’s leg is stitched with arrow is “balga theerth” – “Bhalka” is the name of the village, and “Tirtha” indicates that it is a holy place. There is a temple built by the tree that is said to be the same tree under which Krishna was sitting. On the altar there is a white Deity of Krishna in a sitting posture. One can see the bottom of Krishna’s foot, pink colored with different auspicious symbols. Nearby is the hunter, Jara, with folded hands and one knee on the floor. This place is a few km east of Veraval on the road to Somnath. and he went to the Hiranya river and left his body under kura tree, then arjuna came here and found his body and burnt his body with final funeral treat in allahabad, that place where his body burnt is called as “dhohothsarka” or Gita Mandir about 1km south of the Somnath Temple by the sea. It is said that Lord Krishna walked about 4km from Bhalka Tirtha to this place after he was shot in the foot by the hunter.

According to historical evidence, this temple was built by tara IV (he was harsha’s grandson) in 649 AD then it was again constructed by 800 Ad by chaulkyas after destruction by arab kings. During that time, the temple was very rich with ornaments, vessels made of gold, and there are totally 10000 villages paid tax for this temple and 1000 priests worked there and 300 dancers and musicians worked here. It was a educational center and also a business center with port for export. Pearls, emerald were abundant in Somnath. It was heard by turkey king, Muhamed ghazini, he well planned and attached the city in 1026 AD. That was a huge destruction or theft every held. Total city got ruined, each and every thing washed away, left nothing. In climax, he fired the whole city. After 50 years, the city can’t get up from the destruction. Then in 1169, king Kumarapala, with bhavaprahaspati a constructor, build the temple again. he build with golden dombs, silver peet for sivaling with ornaments and a great thing is a natraj idol which float in a hall with help of magnetic walls.

The temple again destructed by alludin kilji in 1300 AD and again in 1340 AD it was constructed by kenhur. In 1549 AD Gujarat sultan muhamed bhogda destructed this temple. After this for 400 years, there was no worship in this place. The people build a small temple outside the city and worshipped it. Then it was heard by Akalyabai,Indore queen she build a temple near by the destructed temple in 1783 Ad, still it is there opposite to the Somnath temple.

In 1947, a trust was formed and it was again constructed in the same place, in 1951 it was inaugurated by rajendra prasad and it was taken about 15 years to complete. This sea shore temple is 155 feet height and builds in nagari style with huge architectural designs. The main entrance is named as dhigvijya dwar. The siva lingam is huge in size with comparison of other jothirlings.

Now, the shakthi peet – there should be a separate shrine for Devi in ancient times. When we come around the temple, slightly back of main, we can see a stage. It’s like remaining of a sub shrine that is destructed on the top. But during re-construction of Somnath temple, the trustees forget or didn’t take care to rebuild the Devi shrine. They left it as it is.
We can see a arrow mark in south side of this temple, that indicates that is no land at that region that will end with endless sea up to south pole, we can verify this in the map.

But we can see Devi idol behind the jyothirlingam itself in the wall. There is a big hall in front of the main sanctum where usually devotees sung bhajans. At that time I went, there are lot of Tamils sang thevaram hymns in front of Somnath.

Harsiddhi Mata

Harsiddhi Mata

Temple Name : Harsiddhi Mata temple

Devi : Harsiddhi Mata

Bhairava : –

Organ: No – ‘Dwaraka peet’

Sanskrit letter: No

How to reach-

This is situated between Dwaraka and Somnath. Make the journey to Dwaraka from ahmedabad and its on the way to Somnath (another shakthi peet) about half a distance from Dwaraka.

About the place –

After wonderful trip from Kabbar hills, I visited Mount Abu – Arputha devi(see details in Rajasthan). I returned to Ahmedabad from where I took a train to Dwaraka. It was a long journey is about 457 kilometer from Ahmedabad. Okha is the last stop, so I got down at Dwaraka station. The humidity and moisture of the sea shore welcomes me to this MayaKannan Empire. I hired an auto to reach the temple. I am so excited to visit this place. Dwaraka is not a big city; it’s just a small town. When I noticed this, suddenly I remember about the kingdom of Krishna, how this was during his times. The entire city was full of rich and joy with huge building blocks and every yadavas house was with fun and wealth. This was usual ending for every empire.

Dwaraka is praised as one of the seven holy cities in India as mentioned in puranas. Dwaraka was constructed by Krishna, he selected this place for his yadavas. They shifted from Mathura to Dwaraka. Even this was considered as western gate to India, and also important port in sea route. It was noticed as swarna puri(Golden city) in ancient times as it hold enormous wealth. It is said to be this place was selected by Garuda and it was spread over 104 kilometer (12 yogans) away from Jarasandh. In his time itself this place was attacked by shishupal and then Krishna killed him and reconstructed it.

According to puranas, as per Gandhari curse, after Mahabaratha war, Yadvas killed themself and the whole dwaraka was ruined, even Krishna’s son, balram, other relatives died soon and due to heart breaking suffering, Krishna went to the jungle and slept there. A hunter mistaked him as deer and shot poisonous arrow to his leg. Due to this attack, Krishna left his body at that place. The Dwaraka drowned by the sea. Now the archeologist found some remains inside the sea.

The dwaraka temple is continuously destructed for various reasons, now the present Jaganath temple is said to be built in 10th centuray, and got repaired recently on 17th century and came under control of shankaracharya mutt. The temple tower is huge in nagari style about 17 meter wide 52 mts tall. There are main entrance(Mokhsa dwar), shabhamandapam (Big hall where devotees gather together), nitmandir( another hall) and in main sanctum there is a black stone idol for Krishna.

The entire place is vibrated by love for Krishna, every mouth spells Krishna Krishna… the priests closes the screen for every 15 minutes as they change the dresses, ornaments and feed variety foods to Krishna for every hour… that much love, they worship him as a child. They call him as Ranchhodraji. This place is said to be Bhaktha meera dissolved herself with Krishna, after her intense love towards him. I flooded with those thoughts when I stand before that black Krishna idol, how she gone mad with him and her journey in hot desert with the songs.

We can visit sharadha mutt nearby and they have collections of ancients and holy books in hindi.

There is another important place that is Naganath, one of the twelve jyothirlinga, which is very near to Dwaraka about 12 kilometers from there. In ancient period it is named as Dharuka vanam(forest).

There are many share jeeps available to reach nageswar, the temple is seems to be reconstructed recently. Then again to dwaraka, I took a bus to Harsiddhi Mata.

The temple is situated in sea shore and it is also looked ancient one. There is a half constructed temple which is at the Koyla hill nearby. But the old temple is under the hill, it’s look like projected out from the rock, I stepped to the temple, it has open hall with some stay rooms like something on entire corner and again I stepped left to that place has main shrine. There are totally three shrines, in center there is idol of Harsiddhi Mata which is well decorated and right to it is Bhairava. It has no reference as shakthi pith in texts and no organ or akshara is specified and it noted as Dwaraka peet. It is mentioned as the inherits of Krishna worshipped this devi as their native godness. Before any war, Krishna came here and got blessings. It is said that he renovated this temple during his period.

Kabbar Hills

. Kabbar Hills

Temple Name : Aaraakshri Ambaji temple

Devi : Ambaji

Bhairava : –

Organ: Heart / place between two breasts

Sanskrit letter: No

How to reach –

After my trip from rajasthan, i get down in Mount Abu station road. This is the main junction to go Mount Abu and also to this Ambaji temple. There are many vehicles (jeep,car) available in station to reach Ambaji temple. Buses also available in the bus station which is nearby railway station. The temple is about 23 kilometer from there.

About the place –

The gigantic white marbled tower welcomed me to the Ambaji temple. The place is well organized and neat. After security checks, I entered into this temple which is constructed using white marbles as these type of stone is abundant in this area. The Devi idol is very charming and decorated beautifully.

But our Shakhti peet temple is in Kabbar hills which are about 3 km from there on the state border of Gujarat and Rajasthan. I took a share auto there to Kabbar hills. The auto travelled on the roadway towards mount abu, after 2 killometer auto turned left to a road that lead to Kabbar hills. This part of Aravalli hill range is not thick but has many rocky hills. It is said to be origin of the famous Vedic Virgin River Saraswati is on the hills of Arasur forest. I looked Kabbar hills from a kilometer itself. I reached the spot and looked the Kabbar hills.

There are two transport mode to go up, one is through vinch(Electric rope car) and another is through footsteps. I purchased a ticket to rope car. I reached the top and main sanctum of this small shrine is white marble which hoist a saffron flag on its top. There is no idol for Devi, here they worship flame as Devi. A devi idol placed before the flame and Shree Yantra is installed before that. But the whole region of Kabbar should worship as Devi. The kabbar Hills is said to be so ancient.

In ancient period, it was unsafe to reach this hill because of wild creatures. I saw a notice board about a warning that this area is of animals, which become a rare species now. As much death occurred, a landlord of this area came forward to build a temple in the city. That is what we saw first. They made gold Trisool and placed in Kabbar Hills for 48 days. With all the needed rituals they build the new one. I read that once it was invaded and completely demolished by Mughal Emperors.
Some other important places are Goshteswar temple which is about 7 kilometer from Ambaji temple, ‘Ekwaan shakthi peet’ (Kamakshi temple) – another important temple about 4 kilometer from Ambaji temple. This temple is very much realted to our shakthi peet yatra, as it has 51 sub shrines for akshara devis with Adhi Kamakshi in main shrine.

A story at this end-

As per the Hindu Scriptures, the name Gabbar is derived from its original name Garbhar Hill, where Usha, the daughter of Banasur, king of Shonitpur and son of Raja Bali was a reincarnation of Aukha, the daughter of Parvati Mata Ambaji and she danced with Garbhdeep with Lasya Geet in typical traditional Gujarati Garba Dancing Style for the first time on this earth with her husband Aniruddha, son of Prudhuman and grandson of Lord Krishna, after their wedding, when they came here in Arasur Hills of Gabbar and thereafter Usha went to Dwarika, where she taught this Garbhadeep Nrutya, currently, known as famous Gujarati Garba Nrutya, to all others in this world. Thus due to the first performance of Garbh Deep Dance at this place, this Hill has been known among the people as Garbhar Hill, subsequently as Gabbar Hill as it is today and it has become the Birth place of well known Gujarati Garba Dancing Tradition, which has its own cultural attractions & has been spread over this world.

A large number of devotees visit the temple every year especially on Purnima days. A large mela on Bhadarvi poornima (full moon day) is held.

Pithapuram

Pithapuram

Temple Name : Kukkuteshwara Swamy temple

Devi : Puruhutika Devi

Bhairava : –

Organ: Buttocks

Sanskrit letter: No

How to reach –

19 km from Kakinada and 75 Km from Rajahmundry

About the place –

After Dhrakshrama, i reached Kakinada and then Pithapuram. It is third one of three Gayas of India.Others are “Siro Gaya” also familiarly known as Gaya, in Bihar, second one is “Nabi Gaya” near to Jijapur,in Orrisa and the last is “Pada Gaya” Pithapuram.

A demon named Gayasura, devotee of puruhutika devi once started to perform austerities and such were the powers of his tapasya that the demigods began to suffer. They went to Vishnu and asked him to save them. Vishnu agreed and appeared before Gayasura, asking him to cease his activities and accept a boon. “Grant me the boon that I may become the most sacred of all tirthas,” replied the daitya.

The boon was granted and Gayasura disappeared. The demigods returned to svarga, but felt that the earth seemed to be deserted now that Gayasura had disappeared. Vishnu then instructed Brahma and the other demigods to perform a sacrifice. He also asked them to go to Gayasura and ask for his body so that the sacrifice might be performed on it. Gayasura readily agreed, and as soon as he agreed, his head fell off of his body. Lord Brahma then proceeded to perform the sacrifice on Gayasura’s headless body, but as soon as the sacrifice started, the body began to shake. This meant that the sacrifice could not be properly performed and a solution had to be found. The demigods all placed a stone on Gayasura’s body so that the body would not shake, and the sacrifice could be performed. Vishnu himself also entered a stone. The sacrifice yaga held for six days and six nights. Before the last night, Shiva apperaed in form of hen and make a sound like hen. Gayasura thought that the sacrifice is over and he started to shake his body. The rituals stopped and trimurthis appeared before him as three Bhramins and shouted at him that the yaga was stopped because of this your action. Then Gayasur, the honest king, pleased, begged and bowed to them. They come to the original form and asked him a boon. Gayasur asked that people have flock to Gaya to perform shraddha sacrifices on his body to absolve the sins of their ancestor and Gayasur died at that place.

Gaya was transformed into the series of rocky hills that make up the landscape of the Gaya Kshetra. Many Demigods and goddesses had promised to live on Gayasur’s body after he died, and so the hilltop protruberances of Gaya are surmounted by various temples.

Top of the body is gaya in bihar, central part is in jajpur,orissa and third one is feet that is patha gaya ‘pithapuram’.

There is a huge pond or tank before the temple that welcomes us before entering the temple. There are two entrance for this temple. On very near to the entrance, there is a seperate shrine for puruhutika devi, which is considered as a shakthi peet. The main shrine is for Kukkuteshwara Swamy. Kukkut means hen. As shiva appeares in form of hen, this linga is named like that.Sri Kukuteswara Swamy is the Swayambhu with Spatika Lingam. We can see wings like structure behind the linga.

There are seperate shrines for Kunthimadhava Swamy,Rajarajeswari and Dadathreya.

Draksharamam

Draksharamam

Temple Name : Bhimeswar temple

Devi : Manikyamba

Bhairava : –

Organ: Left Cheek

Sanskrit letter: No

How to reach –

Draksharamam is located 28 Km from Kakinada,50 Km from Rajahmundry, 460 km from Hyderabad, 185 km from Vijayawada ..It has bus facility to reach this place. th temple is situated near the bus stop.Nearest Railway stations are Kakinada, Rajahmundry. Samalkot (junction) is one more nearest railway station.

About the place –

The meaning for “Draksharama” is the Abode of Daksha Prajapathi, or Daksha Vatika or Dakshatapovanaas. this place is more important for our shakthi peet journey, I astonished to know that this place is where the yaga party made by daksha. We can see that place where the yaga kunda is. There is a temple which is about half kilometer from bhimeswar temple where the road cuts into a single way road which is surronded by paddy farms and ponds. We can see a temple for sati devi, also named as manickambal. Right side to this temple, we can see a pond where there is a statue in the middle of the pond. A wooden board is placed to reach the statue in the middle of the pond. This place is said to be dhaksa kund and the organ fell down. This is considered as 18 important shakthi peet.

There is no body in that place which is surronded by paddy field and greenish trees. The place is filled with little bit of calm and sorrow, that makes our mind to fill with those feeling. This place is where sati devi falls into yaka fire to sacrifice her body by telling,’ this is really ashame to bear and hold this body giving by you, dhaksa. I will sacrifice this body to this fire’. But the fire didnt touch the devi’s body, but she left that body. The preceeding story is known by you as shiva gone mad because of this incident and carry her body and dance like mad here and there. Vishnu’s sudharsana chakra tourn her body into pieces where shiva went and fall into different parts.

I sat some hours near the pond and return back to the temple nearby, the idol placed here and the idol for manickambal in Bhimeswar mandir is exactly same. The temple is bulilt very recently, before that there is a wreched temple in middle of the pond, still it looks like that like a small motor shed.

There is a place nearby this temple, where a lady told that is samadhi place of some mystic, that telugu lady prounced that is sadhsiva bramendhra, but that is located in nerur near by karur in tamilnadu. It may be of someone.

I returned back to Bhimeswar temple. This temple is one of the “Pancharamas” which is an ancient and holy pagoda and this place is known as dhakshina kashi(South baneares). Moreover this temple is a protected Monument, the Archaeological Department has to undertake the renovation works and have inscriptions and epigraphical details belong to Chola & Sathavahanas to Vijayanagra & Reddy Kingdoms

The temple is well organised and we can see gardens surrounded by the temple. As soon as we entered the temple, we can know the ancientness of this temple. There is outer prahkaram and also there is a inner prahkaram. In the inner most praharam, we can see the linga, which is about ten feet high,made of one large Crystal ,which is 2.6 meters high .I turned my neck to see the peak, but i cant see. The preist told that this is Bogha linga, installed and established by the god, Surya. I climbed to upstaris to see the head of the linga, there are four enternace to see the linga. The speciality of this Shiva Lingam is that, the early morning tender Sun light falls on the Linga. And also there are four entrances to the temple, each facing the four cardinal directions. Every entrance is again covered by a Gopuram. On the upper storey, there is a pillared Pradakshina on three sides, a narrow Antrala and a Garbhagriha. 108 Siva temples built after 800 A.D. around this temple readious of 40 km. Some Purohits have this list. Manikyamba shrine is in right to the main shrine which has a beautiful idol for devi sati of 3 ft in height. There is a seperate shrine for VeeraBhadra,a form of Shiva who destroyed the dhaksa yaga ater sati’s dead.

Rajamundary

Rajamundary

Temple Name : Koti Lingeswar temple

Devi : Vishwesi / Rahini

Bhairava : Dhandapani / Vatsanaba

Organ: Left Cheek

Sanskrit letter: ‘Roo’

How to reach –

Rajamundary is one of the important city in east godavari district of andhra. 45 Kms from Kakinada. It is well connected by train, road. We can take a auto from railway station to this kotilingeswar temple.

About the place –

According to the text, devi’s left cheek falls in godavari bank named sharvasa. As the real fact, no body can spot the exact place where it falls. But approximately, we can define this place to be. The whole godavari bank can consider as shakthi peet , we already see the orgin place of Godavari which is another shakthi peet(Brahmagiri). So we can come to a conclusion that the godavari bank footsteps to be sakthi peet. There is one ancient footsteps built on the banks of Godavari is Rajamundary.

This river bank foot steps said to be build by Rajaraja narendhra of east Chalukyas in 1022 b.c., there are still remainings of forts and palaces in rajamundary. This place is also refered as rajamahendrapuram then it termed as rajamundary.

According to a legend, king lndra was cursed by sage Gautama. To relieve himself of the curse he installed a Sivalinga and anointed it with water from one crore rivers. Hence this temple earned its name as Kotilingeswara temple. There is a saying that there are one crore lingas buried in this land. There is a seperate shrine for rajarajeswari. From her name the city earned its name. The temple is constructed in dravidian style and the main shrine is for kotilingeswara which is shvayambu and there is a shrine left to it for rajarajeswari and right of it there is a vishnu shrine.

There are lot of temples in rajamundary city and there are many ghats here, named after tirupati hills name – shesa ghat, pusha ghat, padma ghat, ram ghat, anandha ghat, rama pada ghat. As like in nasik, here also there is a big khumbha mela for every 12 years in this godavari bank. They named it as pushkaram.

It is said to be a lot of rishis , yogis , sadhus lived in this godavari bank, so taking dip in this holy water is said to be get rid of evil things.

There is another temple,Draksharamam in godavari bank which can consider as a shakthi peet for the organ left cheek.

Srisailam

Srisailam (madhavi peetam)

Temple Name : Shri Mallikarjuna swamy temple

Devi : Bhramaramba Devi (Mahalaxshmi)

Bhairava : Shambaranada

Organ: Brisht or neck and the region below her neck

Sanskrit letter: ‘ya’

This place, srisailam is situated on the banks of the River Krishna, in the thick and quite inaccessible forests of the Nallamalai Hills, in the northeastern part of the Nandikotkur Taluk of Kurnool District in Andhra Pradesh, 201 km from Hyderabad.

From chennai, we get down in Ongole Railway station on Chennai- vijaywada railway line, and we picked a share jeep in Ongole railway station and our journey starts from there about 180 km. From tornala, the jeep starts to climb through the steepy hills with number of U turns. They said there are four hills to be travelled to reach the temple, the hills is one of the wild sanctoury and different rare species livng here. There is a spot, named Shikareshwar, before 12 km to srisailam, there is a peak on that spot where we can see the entire hills and river krishna flows like a snake sleeps around, we can see gigantic white tower of srisailam in betwwen greenish hills from there. The Krishna river is known as “Pathala Ganga”, and is about two miles from the Mallikarjuna Temple is the bathing ghatt with the 500 steps leading to the river Krishna. We went to bathe in this river before going for temple.

In the 32nd chapter of the Srikhanda Purana, Veda Vyasa asks Sanat Kumara to explain about Sri Sailam. Sri Sailam is mentioned in several other texts and Puranas and is also called “Sri Giri”, “Sri Parvata”, “Sri Nagara”, “Rudra Parvata” and “Seshachalam”.

The temple is constructed in the traditional Dravidian style and it was famous even in the 1st century.

The origin of Sri Sailam is not known and the present Mallikarjuna Temple, originally from second century AD, dates back to 14th century. It has often been attacked and damaged because of its richness and political importance.

The temple abounds in sculptural beauty and there are about 116 inscriptions in and around it. This sthalam, along with Thiruppudaimarudur near Ambasamudram and Thiruvidaimarudur is considered an Arjuna Ksetram. Temple is highly related with Mahabharat arjuna penance and shiva plays with Arjuna.

There are many stories in stala purana –

It was to this mount Kartikeya/Muruga had exiled himself when estranged from his parents on account of theis declaring Ganesh as the winner in the contest of circunambulating the world to decide who should marry first, Kartikeya/Muruga or Ganesh. To placate the frayed temper of their son, Shiva and Parvati appered here as Arjuna and Mallika, hence the named as Malliarjuna swamy.

another story is “When Siva and Parvathi decided to find suitable brides for their sons, Ganesha and Muruga argued as to who is to get wedded first. Lord Shiva bade that the one who goes round the world in Pradakshinam could get married first. By the time Lord Muruga could go round the world on his vahana, Lord Ganesha went round his parents 7 times (for according to Sastras, going inpradakshinam round one’s parents is equivalent to going once round the world (Boopradakshinam). Lord Shiva got Siddhi and Buddhi, the daughters of Viswaroopan married to Lord Ganesha.
Muruga on his return was enraged and went away to stay alone on Mount Kravunja in the name of Kumarabrahmachari. On seeing his father coming over to pacfy him, he tried to move to another place, but on the request of the Devas, stayed closeby. The place where Lord Siva and Parvathi stayed came to be known as Sri Sailam. Lord Shiva visits Lord Muruga on Amavasai day and Parvathi Devi on Pournami. ”

Several famous saints, sadhus, poets and seekers have visited this place. Traditions says that the sacred Lingam has been worshipped by Hiranya Kasipa in Kritha Yuga, Lord Sri Hari in Tretha Yuga after the assasination of Ravana. The Pandavas came to Sri Sailam in Dwapara Yuga and constructed many temples. Lord Dattatreya Siddha Nagarjuna performed penance under the “Triple beneficial tree” besides the Mallikarjuna shrine.
The three Saivaite saints Thirugnanasambandar, Thirunavukkarasar and Sundarar have sung in praise of the Lord at this place.
Whereas it is confimed that Thirunavukkarasar reached this palce before his kailash journey, whereas other two worshipped from kalahasthi mountain.

In some stories, as this place is enlightment place of sage silatha, this is known as srisailam.

Akkamakdevi, a lady shiva devottee who lived naked throu her life is also a devotee of this mallikarjuna and praised him in her poems. and hemalata, another lady devotee being visited this temple and said to be mingled with malligarjuna in this sanctom.

Even Buddhist monk and chinese traveller fahien, yuvang tuang mentioned in his notes abt srisailam as this is also a buddhist center at period of nagarjuna, a buddhist scholar. Acharya Nagarjuna resided on the Sri Sailam mountain and history tells that the mountain was called, “Nagarjuna Konda”.

In tamil, we call this place as “Paruppadam”, hence the Theertham(sacred tank) is known as “Paruppada Theertham”.

Two Lingams are actually called “Mallikarjuna Lingam”.

The “new” Mallikarjuna Lingam is placed in a silverplated Mantapam in the main Mallikarjuna shrine. It is samll in size than any other Jyothir lingam and it is placed in a square formed Yoni apr. 10 cm high. The main worship takes place here.

There is no regulations for devotee here, they can do pujas, abshike and offerings to the linga by them self.

The “old” Mallikarjuna Lingam is placed in a smaller shrine in the temple south of the main Mallikarjuna shrine. This is the only Lingam in the temple which has no Nandi bull in front.It is said the Nandi deva, the sacred bull of Lord Shiva performed penance here. Lord Shiva appeared before him, with his consort Parvati in the forms of Mallikarjuna and Bharamaramba. The Lingam is big, about 20-25 cm high and 30 cm in diameter. It is marked by time and looks like the stub of a tree. It is said that this Linga is older than the main Mallikarjuna Linga.Several other Lingams are placed in seperate shrines southwest of the main temple.

Behind or to the North of the shrine is a seperate temple of Parvati, known as the Temple of Mallika Devi

Next we went to Shakti Peetha of the Goddess Bhramaramba, the consort of Lord Mallikarjunaswami, in the form of Goddess Kali. which is to the west of malligarjuna shrine. That place is also named as “Madhavi peetam”, she is also named as chandravathi, kali, parvathi but the idol is structured as mahisasura mardhini. She is one of the energy form named as ‘brahmari’- energy resides in creation of existance. Adi Shankara is said to have worshipped the deity at the temple and to have composed the “Sivananda Lahari” at this Sthalam. “Dwadasa Jyotirlinga sthrotra” of Adi Shankaracharya also mention Sri Sailam.
He installed srichakra in before Bhramaramba shrine to make this place much more powerful. This place get a importancefor practicers of Tantric.

Padma Peetam

Thiruchanoor

Temple Name : Alamelu Mangapuram

Devi : Padmavathi

Bhairava : –

Organ: Not mentioned. “Padma Peetam”

Sanskrit letter: No

About the place –

Tirupati City is located in the southeastern part of Andhra Pradesh, in Chittoor district. It lies about 152-km northwest of Chennai in the Palkonda Hills. This temple is of distance of about 5 km from Tirupati and also knowm as Alamelu Mangapuram. Alamelu Mangai(Padmavati), consort of Sri Venkateshwara(Vishnu) is said to be incarnation of Lakshmi.

Padmavathi Devi’s temple is away from Lord Sri Venkateswara’s. The story is that the Lord Sri Maha Vishnu, who later took on the incarnation of Sri Venkateswara) showed his reverence towards the sage, Bhrigu Maharshi, even though the sage had insulted Vishnu by kicking Him on the chest.

In anger, Sri Maha Lakshmi (the Lord’s consort living in chest of vishnu) reached Patala Loka, where she heard a divine voice stating that a pushkarini was dug on the banks of the river Swarnamukhi, and here She immersed herself in penance for 12 years.

In the 13th year (during the month of Karteeka, on Panchami day in the last fortnight, highlighted by the nakshathram Uttarashadha), Sri Padmavathi emerged from a golden lotus. It is believed that Goddess MahaLakshmi herself emerged as Sri Padmavathi. Here there is a temple for padmavathi, as she left her husband for 12 years, she named as alarmel (in dilemma) mangai (lady) and padmavathi(emergered from lotus) in sanskrit.

Even there are some tantric practicers worshipping her for acquiring wealth and bliss in life, these are even practiced by Jains also in name of Padmavathi and sri. Even there is also another temple for her in a Jain Pillgrim Center in Huncha, Karnataka. She is said to be the energy residing in heart chakra, or love energy of the existence.

This temple is named as sri puram, the idol godness is swayambhu and installed upon Shri chakra. It is said to be that Tirupathi venkateswara is installed with Dhana akarshana yantra. ‘Kalyanotsavam’ is performed here as in Tirumala between 10.30 a.m. and 12 noon every day. It is said that a visit to Tirumala is fruitful only after visiting the Sri Padmavati Devi temple.

Kalahasthi

Kalahasthi

Temple Name : Sri Kalahastheeswar temple

Devi : Vandaar Kuzhalaal/ Gnanaprasoonambika

Bhairava : –

Organ: upper abdomen

Sanskrit letter: No

At a early morning, i have started my journey to Tirupathi with my friends. There is a regular and famous train named Saptagiri express from chennai central to Tirpati at 6 25 am. We reached Tirupathi 9 30 am, we went to get registration for Darshan, in Devasthanam Board nearby Bus stand. But we got token by afternoon, so we plan to kalhasthi, another shakthi peet.

Kalahasthi is said to be Dhakshina Kailash(south kailash) and this temple is said to be one of pancha bootha sthalam (Temples for Lord shiva emboided with five primary elements fire, water, air, land and space). This temple is mentioned for air. There is a story narrates that this temple is worshipped by three beings snake, elephant and spider as it named as Sri (spider) kala(snake) hasti(elepant). We reached the temple, after crossing busy bazaar, the temple build in southern architecture and it is well developed inperiod of vijayanagara empire with four gopurams(towers) at four directions.

First, we went to shiva shrine, that the linga in main sanctoum is said to be very ancient as it is Swayambhu – orginate by its own. There is a straight snake ornament is covered over the linga looks so beauty for it. There are nine horizontal crosses over the ornament resembles nine planet and 27 stars over it. I heard that two lamp flames lightened here oscillats very fast in air whereas there is no flow of air in that tight architecture.I noticed that one, it is not oscillating that much fast, but it is oscillating and i saw a camphor flame nearby, it is still.

Shakthi shrine is next to it, devi idol is gigantic made up of black stone, decorated beautiful and seems to be a 6 feet fair lady stands before us. She is named as Vandoor Kuzhalaali in Tamil means wearing flowers with bees around in her head hair and Gnanaprasoonambika in sanskrit. We went outside of the temple, and we saw a small kali temple in that outer prahakaram, may be this one will be shakthi peet. As I saw in many temple, the main deity that is inside the temple will not be a shakthi peet, a small and unnoticed temple will be a shakthi peet and it will be mentioned as kali, usually.

We worshipped that kali temple, much more vibrant there and went outside the temple, we saw a smallhillock nearby the temple, and they said that is kannapa hill located, east to this temple. Kannapa was a hunter lived at this region, seems to belong before 10 th centuary. Once at his life time, he reached this place, and see a linga here. Attracted to that place and that linga, we fall in love with that. He starts to come to this place reguraly, feed it with hunted food , cleaned with water, decorated with flowers. One day, he saw that one eye of that stone was bleeding, he stopped that with his hand, but still it was. He crushed medicinal herbs on it,no use. His starts crying, and without thinking, he cut his eyes with the arrow and palced in that place, it stops bleeding. Then after a moment, next eye starts bleeding, again kannapa, placed his leg on the eye spot of linga, he cut his another eye and placed in that spot. At that moment, shiva appears before him and hugged. The story ends with that he went with shiva. A great devotee of Tamil nadu, Manickavasagar lived in 10 Ad praised Kannapa, as there is no replacement for Kannapa’s love to shiva. We start climbing that legendary hill is near by through steps.

In the top of this small hillock , there is a plain space where there is a small temple for Bhaktha Kannapa. The temple for this great devootee is in poor condition, we saw alcoholic bottles, ashes of cigaratees through that place, moreover scribllings over the white paints of the temple. The temple is locked all over the day and heared that priest come twice a day and again locked up.

We can see entire location of kalahasti from that hillocak, we saw river Swarnamukhi beautifully curved around the temple and flow through greenish small hills and plains.

Kalahasthi temple is praised in thevara hyms(Tamil shiva lyrics) and both three nayanmars (shiva devotees lived between 4 Ad to 7 AD) appar, sundarar and ThiruGnana sambandar visited this place.