An Obeisance to the spirit of God

About the temple

“This is a temple without any statue or idol!” informed our guide at Aavudaiyar temple, also known as Tirupperunthurai

A Hindu temple without an idol is not heard of. Who do we pray to? Would God listen to us when we pray there? 

We are so used to looking at an idol to visualize God, and pray to that; we are so used to looking at the decorations and the beauty of the idols, that praying to an empty space is difficult. We know that God is everywhere, but still, an idol at the sanctum sanctorum makes us believe that God IS there to listen to us. This was a surprise to us. 

“We have only a ‘Kalasam’ on top of a rectangle base (where the linga is supposed to be) to denote God,” informed our guide, to our relief.

Folks, welcome to the temple of Atmanathar.

The lord here is said to be in the form of an ‘aavi’ or spirit. Thus this is no physical idol denoting him.

The temple was built by the Tamil poet Manickavasagar. The story on the temple is also available@ http://storibuzz.in/the-story-of-manickavasagar/.

Sculptures

Exquisite and detailed sculptures is the hallmark of this temple. As we enter the temple, the first most prominent sculpture that we see is that of Lord Siva in the kuravan and Goddess Parvathi in the Kurathi avatar while presenting the Pashupathastra to Arjuna. The carvings of the hair accessories, and the hair strokes as well are impressive. Beautiful long and shaped nails of Goddess Parvathi is not to be missed too.

Another sculpture not to be missed is of Manickavasagar himself. As soon as we cross the statue of Lord Siva and Goddess Parvathi as kuravan and Kurathi, we can see 2 status of Manickavasagar in the next pillar, facing the sanctum. While the first sculpture depicts him in the Raja-alakar, the second one depicts him as a hermit. The fine details of the crown and the mustache as when he was a minister is a masterpiece. You can actually touch and feel the coarseness of the mustache. As a hermit, he is wearing the rudraksha mala covering his entire head. Each and every face of the rudraksha is spectacularly spectacular etched.

Further in, one can see the sculpture of how the foxes turn into horses and the horses back into foxes. 

Behind this, you can find a ‘kuttu vilaku’ or a big lamp sculpted out from stone again. The style of the lamp is similar to the ones found in Kerela i.e. without edges.

Throughout the temple, the stone is carved in the fashion as it would have been had it been made of wood - like the temple at Guruvayur. Infact to give it a realistic feel, even the nuts and bolts have been sculpted out as if binding the roof together.

Temple Tour

It is said that you must start the tour of this temple by paying your first and the final respect to Manickavasagar.

As soon as you enter, the sannidhi of Manickavasagar is on the left side of the sanctum sanctorum. From there, we head to have the feel of the Swamy Atmanathar. It is said that god here does not have a form. He is there in spirit. And thus, there is no idol for him. 

As prasadam, the hot vapor from the boiling boiled rice is offered to God. the prasadam is brought in a vessel and strewn across over a platform specially for this. The hot vapour gets drawn only towards the inside of the sanctum.

At the end of the day, the devotees are treated to the specially prepared tamarind rice with bitter gourd. The bitter gourd here is said to loose all its bitterness after the naivaidiyam.

Also interesting to note is that, in this temple, the devotees do not get the aarathi. Generally, when we take the aarathi, we are said to hinder or stop the flow of fire while it reaches to go up. This temple believes that there should be no force that should hinder the aarathi fire to reach its righteous place - at God’s abode.


Our third halt is now at the Ambal sannithi, which is on the left - back side of Swamy Atmanathar. The goddess here also does not have swaroop. However her footprints are engraved and pooja happens to those. The doors to her sannithi are closed to visitors; however, everyone can see the footprints through a window that is exactly opposite to the sannithi of Manickavasagar. Above the footprints, on the ceiling is the ‘Srichakra’ denoting the goddess.

The daily aarathi for Manickavasagar and the Ambal happens at the same time. Devotees thus need to line up on the side so as not to obstruct the view of aarathi at both the places. 

Besides the Ambal Sannithi and right behind the Sanctum is the location where Lord Siva wrote the Thiruvachagam as was recited to him by Manickavasagar under the Kurunda tree. 

Next, on the right of this, is the room, where the ‘oolai chavudu’ written by Lorn Siva himself is kept in a glass box.

Now coming back to the main sanctum, we have now finished one pradakshanam around the sanctum. However as stated earlier, the visit to the temple is not complete without the final darshan of the Manickavasagar. Post this, you can collect the tamarind rice with bitter guard and head back home.