Friday, October 31, 2008

Needamangalam - "Santhaana Ramaswaminam"

"Ee mahilo sogasaina chola seemandhu"
- Sri Thyagaraja


this is a mukhari raga kriti (muripe mu galige) of my guru which clearly states that chola cities are beautiful in this entire world. This chola kingdom consists of many and major and minor cities, but the unique and uniform feature of all these cities are that they are nourished by the river Cauvery and all these have temples with mind blowing history and architecture along with their holiness. The holiness of cauverythata ( bank) is mentioned here again in the same kriti "eedu laeni malayamaaruthamuche koodina cauvery thatamanthu" (He asks Lord Sri Rama do u need any other better place than this cauvery thata). To here this song click here.. One among these cities is Needamangalam which is situated on the way to mannarkudi either from kumbakonam or tanjavoor. It is also situated on the banks of Vennar, a dis tributary of cauvery. Thus it is no surprise to find a sri rama temple (refer above). Now i ll be describing about this temple.

Santhaana Ramaswaminam

This kshetra is neither included in 108 vaishnava dhivya sthalams or abhimana or purathana sthalams. The only link showing the existence of this temple is a kriti by Sri Muthuswamy Dikshithar(MD) - Santhaana Ramaswaminam in the raagam Hindolavasantham. He mentions "santatam yamunambapuri nivasantham nathasantham hindolavasantham". Three things to be noted here :

1. why it is called as yamunambapuri?

2. note the raga mudra

3. why he is called as santhaana ramaswamy?

We all know MD furnish geographic references and sthala puranas in his kritis.Thus to know the answer for the fist question we need to step in into the temple.

Temple

River Vennar welcomes you into the city and the temple is located in the centre of the town.






Santhaana Ramaswamy Temple


Other names : Sakethakshetram; Yamunambapuram
Vimanam : Thriaranga vimanam
Pushkarini : Vennar, Saketha pushkarini






Saketha pushkarini

It is a small, clean and very neat temple with a single prakaram. Saketha pushkarini is seen just in front of the temple.

Sthalapuranam: The answers for first and last questions in MD kritis is in the sthalapuranam. This temple was built by the king Pratapasimha in 1761 AC. His wife is Yamunambaal. This couple couples were childless and worshipped Santhaana Ramaswami here and were blessed wuth a child. This is portrayed in the same kriti "santhana sowbhagya vihtharanam" - one who provides santhaana sowbhagyam. Thus this kshetra is called Yamunambapuri and Lord here called as "Santhaana Ramaswami". This song once again displays the beauty of MD kritis. To here the song click here...( song number 414)

Even now, childless couples come here and worship this Lord after taking a bath from this holy pushkarini and were blessed with a child.

Location: Needamangalam (alternate name: Nidamangalam) is a panchayat town in Thiruvarur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located 35km from Thanjavur and 318Km from Chennai. It is around 45 minutes drive from kumbakonam.

1 comment:

Musical Scientist said...

Wonderful post. Thanks a lot for the details on the santAna ramaswAmi temple in nIdAmangaLam Aravind. I am going on a trip to the kumbakonam area next week and I will visit the temple for sure. Keep posting!!