Sri Vazhakkaruntheswara Temple
This temple is small and a bit claustrophobic inside. This temple also has an obscure entrance, but with a neon sign saying SIVA in Tamil script. Inside two separate and elaborate pujas were being performed. This temple houses a form of Shiva lingam with a five headed snake. People with legal problems pray to Shiva here to get his good wishes.
As we entered this temple, the first puja we encountered was the marriage of Lord Murugan to Deviyanni. With permission from the pujari, we were able to take photos inside. They had the interior set up like a marriage hall, with decorations and a traditional band playing marriage music. Despite the temple having narrow corridors with no windows, I managed to take a few photos.
In fact the temple also bought the drama of this marriage to the street at night. According to legend, Lord Murugan was able to marry Deviyanni only after warding off the evil Surabathman. He also had the power to change his shape and size. Murugan, the son of Shiva and Parvathi and the brother of Ganesha, was called to destroy this annoyance to mankind. Murugan was very brave and strong, but Surabathman was not an easy beast to beat. As Murugan chops of his head, a new head of another beast will appear. As this is played out on the street, lighted crackers are burst after each head is destroyed. Like this, six beastly heads appear and are removed by Murugan until Surabathman's "human" head is seen and also destroyed. After this head is destroyed, Murugan is victorious. It is said, it took six days from the day of Diwali for Murugan to win this battle, one day for each head to be decapitated. It is also for these six days that devotees of Murugan will fast by either only drinking beverages (no alcohol) or eating only tiffens (snacks) for lunch and dinner (no non-vegetarian food allowed). On the sixth day, Murugan devotees will circle the temple 108 times and break their fast by having a grand meal. Also, on the day immediately following the death of Surabathman, Murugan marries his bride, Deviyanni. All these festivities take place in temples or street processions.
As we circled through the temple in a counter clockwise direction, the other puja we encountered was for Lord Ayyappa. As with the other area of the temple, we also gained permission to take photos here. In several days from this, devotees would be traveling to Sabarimala in Kerala, where Lord Ayyappa resides, to take part in the yearly Ayyappa puja. Traditionally only men or young girls or elderly women can go to this temple. Women who have attained puberty and are not yet past menopause can not go inside the Ayyappa temple. However, many women of this age attend ‘virtual pujas’ at Sabarimala through sending their offerings. One way this happens is through attending the puja that was held in this temple on this night. Women who pray for a good marriage or a continued good family life come to fill coconuts with ghee that are sent to Sabarimala with the men. In fact, I also attended this puja, but in a temple just outside Kanchipuram, called Sri Karumaiya Amman Temple. This puja was one based on concentration. The pujari gives you a coconut with an opening on the top about one inch in diameter, and you must pour ghee (melted, clarified butter) into this hole without a funnel, and without spilling any outside of the coconut. It was this part of the puja, in this temple, that I was not allowed to photograph. After this was completed, the pujari seals the coconut with a stopper and some special items and these coconuts are collected and the men take them to Sabarimala where the coconuts are opened, the ghee is poured over Ayyappa murthi and then collected and bought back to the same devotees who are to eat the ghee as prasadam. As I left India before the ghee was brought back, my friends partook in the prasadam when it was bought
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