My explanation to Athi Varadhar mystery.
I have visited Sri Varadharajar temple at Kanchipuram several times spanning several decades.My usual practise i s to enter the gopurum /entrance after placing my slippers outside .Then join the queue near the flag post after walking , quite some distance then enter the temple , go behind it [unlike other temples entrance to the sannidhi is like a maze.one has to go around a small hill and enter the sanctum from back .This arrangement is confusing to new comers who go round in circles .it is also mystifying.Was it built thus to confuse invaders?]climb up 40 or more stairs ,reach a hall and then climb few more steps to the sanctum , be awestruck by the gigantic and pleasing moorthy of Varadhar ,adorned with silk clothes ,garlands , ornaments and see only the exposed part of his body viz smiling face , the sanku and chakra , gadha held in his hands and be tongue tied before his right hand blessings us and then go down ,perumbulate the temple in its wide and long circumbulatory passage and then return back.
I visited this temple a week or two back .The place was very quite .The lakhs of devotees who had thronged this place in july have all disappeared since the main attraction--viz Athi Varadhar is in hibernation in the depths of his watery abode --the temple tank and will be woken only after 40 years. .But his aura lingers on as i observed that devotees who visit Vardaar also make it a point to search for the hall where Athi varadar was housed for 1 and half months and then pay thier reverential obseince to the empty hall which is locked .They then circumbulate the hall .Though a freshly painted notice board near the temple tank points to the exact place where Athi vardar is laid there are very few takers . This time around i had plenty of time at hand as the abhishekam of Varadhar we had booked to attend was several hours away. Hence i stopped to have a close look at carvings on the pillars of two open stone mantaps .One outside the main entrance and one inside the entrance.Both are in a straight line .The mantap outside the main Gopuram is occupied by flower sellers and vendors of puja materials.This mantap has several pillars with carvings of men, women , rishi's hanuman, narsimhar, and other lesser gods from top to bottom .They are all very small in size and one has to look closely to make out as to whom a carving represents .The carving of Vishnu with his sanku and chakram stood out .The first carving i saw of vishnu had a oblitetred nose .I thought it must be due to passage of time These pillars could be 500 years or more older .I went around examining carvings on the other pillars supporting the mantap It shocked me to note that every vishnu carving had its nose sliced off whilst the other carvings were intact.This is not the result of passage of time .This was a deliberate act of defacement .This is also the fate of Vishnu's small carvings in the mantap inside the temple grounds , right in front of the main entrance and near it. Athi Vardhar is Vishnu .In tamilnadu each Vishnu temple have different names .The main deity is Vishnu/Nrayana but they are called by different names.
This selective defacement of only Vishnu could not have been the working of enraged hordes attacking Kafirs place of worship blindly,breaking all the idols on its way .A lot of thought and time seems have gone in this defacement ..Those who did it knew which carving in the pillar represented the main deity within the sanctum and went about defacing only those that would cause maximum damage to Kafir's pshyche.The kafir idol worshippers were taught a lesson in a systematic manner .
This temple has very few sculptures unlike the temple at Melkote in Karnataka .Any one visiting Melkote temple can seen the defacement of rows upon rows of figures carved on the boundary wall, and inside the temple .That temple is full of carvings so the defacement is obvious. In here the main sculpture like Srinivasar temple at Tirumala is the main presiding deity viz Athi Vardhar.
when i saw those tiny carvings with out its nose it shocked me that who ever wanted to desecrate the temple knew which sculpture need to be defaced viz those carvings in stone that represents the main deity within .
This who ever must be Muslim invaders of 16 or 17 th century since many connect the immersion of Athi Varadhar in the temple tank to the invasion of Muslim rulers On seeing the selective slicing off or the defacement of carvings of Vishnu on the pillars outside the temple i am sure that the Muslim rulers and hordes marched right upto the sanctum of Athi Varadhar and sliced off his wooden nose and cut his right hand .What they wanted was desecration of the temple and its main deity and they achieved it , hence may not have gone further in destroying the idol in total .They must have known that defacement is sufficient to stop the worship of the moorthy.
It is the practise in my community[Brahmin] to drop worn out sacred thread like the thread holding the mangalyam of a married woman into a well when replacing it with a new thread.Several decades back nearly every house in chennai had a well.Maybe the same custom was followed with regard to Athi Varadhar .The original Deity was sacred one .That he was worshipped way back in 7th -9 th cent comes to knowledge owing to the Tamil hymns or pasurums written upon him by aazhwars like Tirmangai aazhwar who has written several hymns on Athi Varadhar .Desikan anSri Vaishnavaite acharya of 13 th cent AD has written pasurums in Tamil and slokas in sanskrit in praise of this original wooden deity of Vardhar.So this deity was intact till 14 th century .
Since the original Varadhar was ancient , sacred no one had the heart to destroy it after it was defaced and became unfit for daily worship, So it was dropped into the temple tank and a new moorthy in stone was carved and enshrined in the sanctum on Athi Vardhar and worship was commenced and is being carried on till today .
In a interview to tv channel a brahmin who helped lift athi varadhar 40 years back said that the right hand of athi varadhar was cut off from the main deity .It lay separately .When i visited Kanchipuram to have a darshan of Athi Vradhar in july who was in a reclining position , i observed that a brown band was wound around his right hand .Maybe it was to hold the sliced off hand in place.
Many stories were floated around the mystery of Athi Vardhara's immersion in the pushkarni .Many famous Sri Vaishnavaite scholars gave different views ,One scholar said that because Athi varadar arose out of heat of Yagna performed by Brahma, his efflugence was scorching every thing around hence he was immersed in the cool waters of temple tank to cool him and is still kept there , becuase he has not yet cooled down! whilst another scholar said that he was hidden due to fear of muslim invasion and then forgotten, if so why wasnt he re installed once he was discovered? The processional deity of athi varadar was hidden for decades in a forest but once discovered he was placed in the sanctum of this very temple and is being worshipped ever since.In srirangam temple the moolavar of mahalakshmi was also hidden in the temple garden owing to fear of malik kafur in 13 th cent ad and then forgotten .A new moorthy was installed .several decades later the original moorthy was discovered and she has been placed in the same sanctum and is being worshipped .There are two moorthies of Ranagnayaki/mahalakshmi at present in Sri Rangam temple. It has been obviously re installed because she was not defaced.Hence if original athi varadar had not been defaced he would have been re- installed. Even learned men seem to gloss over this basic and simple explanation may be due to fear of charges of communalism being slapped upon them .A Muslim filed a complaint in a court against a srivaishnavaite brahmin temple priest of a small town for speaking his mind openly on this matter and for stating that Athi varadhar was defaced by Muslims.According to the complainant this priest was disrupting communal harmony .This came in the news papers.Poor priest , he must be climbing up and down the courts steps ever since the complaint was lodged to the detriment of his duties to the deity in that temple .
I visited this temple a week or two back .The place was very quite .The lakhs of devotees who had thronged this place in july have all disappeared since the main attraction--viz Athi Varadhar is in hibernation in the depths of his watery abode --the temple tank and will be woken only after 40 years. .But his aura lingers on as i observed that devotees who visit Vardaar also make it a point to search for the hall where Athi varadar was housed for 1 and half months and then pay thier reverential obseince to the empty hall which is locked .They then circumbulate the hall .Though a freshly painted notice board near the temple tank points to the exact place where Athi vardar is laid there are very few takers . This time around i had plenty of time at hand as the abhishekam of Varadhar we had booked to attend was several hours away. Hence i stopped to have a close look at carvings on the pillars of two open stone mantaps .One outside the main entrance and one inside the entrance.Both are in a straight line .The mantap outside the main Gopuram is occupied by flower sellers and vendors of puja materials.This mantap has several pillars with carvings of men, women , rishi's hanuman, narsimhar, and other lesser gods from top to bottom .They are all very small in size and one has to look closely to make out as to whom a carving represents .The carving of Vishnu with his sanku and chakram stood out .The first carving i saw of vishnu had a oblitetred nose .I thought it must be due to passage of time These pillars could be 500 years or more older .I went around examining carvings on the other pillars supporting the mantap It shocked me to note that every vishnu carving had its nose sliced off whilst the other carvings were intact.This is not the result of passage of time .This was a deliberate act of defacement .This is also the fate of Vishnu's small carvings in the mantap inside the temple grounds , right in front of the main entrance and near it. Athi Vardhar is Vishnu .In tamilnadu each Vishnu temple have different names .The main deity is Vishnu/Nrayana but they are called by different names.
This selective defacement of only Vishnu could not have been the working of enraged hordes attacking Kafirs place of worship blindly,breaking all the idols on its way .A lot of thought and time seems have gone in this defacement ..Those who did it knew which carving in the pillar represented the main deity within the sanctum and went about defacing only those that would cause maximum damage to Kafir's pshyche.The kafir idol worshippers were taught a lesson in a systematic manner .
This temple has very few sculptures unlike the temple at Melkote in Karnataka .Any one visiting Melkote temple can seen the defacement of rows upon rows of figures carved on the boundary wall, and inside the temple .That temple is full of carvings so the defacement is obvious. In here the main sculpture like Srinivasar temple at Tirumala is the main presiding deity viz Athi Vardhar.
when i saw those tiny carvings with out its nose it shocked me that who ever wanted to desecrate the temple knew which sculpture need to be defaced viz those carvings in stone that represents the main deity within .
This who ever must be Muslim invaders of 16 or 17 th century since many connect the immersion of Athi Varadhar in the temple tank to the invasion of Muslim rulers On seeing the selective slicing off or the defacement of carvings of Vishnu on the pillars outside the temple i am sure that the Muslim rulers and hordes marched right upto the sanctum of Athi Varadhar and sliced off his wooden nose and cut his right hand .What they wanted was desecration of the temple and its main deity and they achieved it , hence may not have gone further in destroying the idol in total .They must have known that defacement is sufficient to stop the worship of the moorthy.
It is the practise in my community[Brahmin] to drop worn out sacred thread like the thread holding the mangalyam of a married woman into a well when replacing it with a new thread.Several decades back nearly every house in chennai had a well.Maybe the same custom was followed with regard to Athi Varadhar .The original Deity was sacred one .That he was worshipped way back in 7th -9 th cent comes to knowledge owing to the Tamil hymns or pasurums written upon him by aazhwars like Tirmangai aazhwar who has written several hymns on Athi Varadhar .Desikan anSri Vaishnavaite acharya of 13 th cent AD has written pasurums in Tamil and slokas in sanskrit in praise of this original wooden deity of Vardhar.So this deity was intact till 14 th century .
Since the original Varadhar was ancient , sacred no one had the heart to destroy it after it was defaced and became unfit for daily worship, So it was dropped into the temple tank and a new moorthy in stone was carved and enshrined in the sanctum on Athi Vardhar and worship was commenced and is being carried on till today .
In a interview to tv channel a brahmin who helped lift athi varadhar 40 years back said that the right hand of athi varadhar was cut off from the main deity .It lay separately .When i visited Kanchipuram to have a darshan of Athi Vradhar in july who was in a reclining position , i observed that a brown band was wound around his right hand .Maybe it was to hold the sliced off hand in place.
Many stories were floated around the mystery of Athi Vardhara's immersion in the pushkarni .Many famous Sri Vaishnavaite scholars gave different views ,One scholar said that because Athi varadar arose out of heat of Yagna performed by Brahma, his efflugence was scorching every thing around hence he was immersed in the cool waters of temple tank to cool him and is still kept there , becuase he has not yet cooled down! whilst another scholar said that he was hidden due to fear of muslim invasion and then forgotten, if so why wasnt he re installed once he was discovered? The processional deity of athi varadar was hidden for decades in a forest but once discovered he was placed in the sanctum of this very temple and is being worshipped ever since.In srirangam temple the moolavar of mahalakshmi was also hidden in the temple garden owing to fear of malik kafur in 13 th cent ad and then forgotten .A new moorthy was installed .several decades later the original moorthy was discovered and she has been placed in the same sanctum and is being worshipped .There are two moorthies of Ranagnayaki/mahalakshmi at present in Sri Rangam temple. It has been obviously re installed because she was not defaced.Hence if original athi varadar had not been defaced he would have been re- installed. Even learned men seem to gloss over this basic and simple explanation may be due to fear of charges of communalism being slapped upon them .A Muslim filed a complaint in a court against a srivaishnavaite brahmin temple priest of a small town for speaking his mind openly on this matter and for stating that Athi varadhar was defaced by Muslims.According to the complainant this priest was disrupting communal harmony .This came in the news papers.Poor priest , he must be climbing up and down the courts steps ever since the complaint was lodged to the detriment of his duties to the deity in that temple .
posted by K.C. Sujata at
3:13 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home