Six abodes of Shri Karthikeyan in Thanjavur - Aarupadai Veedugal, Thanjavur

Thamizh month Karthigai is going to end and Margazhi is about to begin from Sunday 16/12/18. To mark the end of Karthigai month I’ve come up with a post about temples of Lord Subrahmanya who is worshipped importantly on this month.

Temple Vimana

Thanjavur is blessed with lot of ancient and powerful temples. Each temple has its own story supporting its evolution. In this posts I’m going to throw light on 6 temples, which coincidently became the “Six abodes of Lord Murugan within Thanjavur”.  Each temple has its own history and people in Thanjavur almost celebrates these temples as a mythological miracle.

You might be amazed of what I’ve said, because we know that six abodes of Lord Murugan i.e., six temples is located in various cities, towns and villages of various districts of Thamizh Nadu. But here in Thanjavur all those six abodes located within the heart of a single city Thanjavur.

This 6 abodes in Thanjavur came into limelight since 3 decades. A group of 100 people from Karthigai Vazhipadu Kuzhu from Thanjavur’s Brihadeeshwara temple started to worship Lord Subrahmanya of these 6 temples and every year during Shashti they march to each temple beginning from the shrine of Lord Subrahmanya in Brihadeeshwara temple.

Valli Devasena Sametha Subrahmanya Swamy

Before Getting into the 6 abodes in Thanjavur, I’ll tell you how the temples are mapped to the temples in Thanjavur.

Abodes in Thamizh Nadu	Abodes in Thanjavur
Thiruparangundram	Sri Valli Devasena Sametha Subrahmanya Swamy temple, West main Street
Thiruchendur	Subrahmanya Swamy temple, Pookkara street
Pazhani	Bala Dhandayudhapani Swamy temple, North main street
Swamimalai	Swaminatha Swamy temple, Aatumanthai street
Thiruthani	Kuruchi Subrahmanya Swamy temple, Kuruchi Subrahmanya Swamy street
Pazhamudhircholai	Dhandayudhapani Swamy temple, Chinna Arisikkara street

Now we’ll further move on to the history (Sthala Puranam) of each temple.

1.   Sri Valli Devasena Sametha Subrahmanya Swamy temple, West main street:

This temple is mapped as the Thiruparangundram abode of Lord Karthikeya.

Sri Valli Devasena Sametha Subrahmanya swamy, West Main Street

This temple was built during by the Maratha King Prathapa Simhan around 1757, where he worshipped this deity for a child’s boon. This is the only temple of Lord Subrahmanya in Thanjavur where the sanctum (Grabhagriha) of the temple is located in height. The deity here is powerful in providing child’s boon to his devotees. Married couples worship the deity by fasting for child’s boon during Shashti and when the child is born, they will adopt the child to the deity and will buy back the child for the good fortune of the newborn babies. Shangabhishekam is done every year during the month of Karthigai and also on every Karthigai star day. You’ll find the Lord Murugan will be holding a bow in this temple. Generally it is found that Lord Murugan will be holding his Vel (Spear).

2.   Subrahmanya Swamy Temple, Pookkara street:

This temple is mapped as the Thiruchendur abode of Lord Subrahmanya Swamy.

Subrahmanya Swami, pookkara street

Subrahmanya Swamy temple has a divine history and this temple is just built around the year 1911. The main reason behind building this temple is a saint from Thiruchendur. The saint renounced his family and all kind of relationship in his early childhood. The only meaning to his life was the tiny metallic idol of Lord Subrahmanya. The saint does Pooja to his Lord Subrahmanya every day without fail. He got to know about his end in his life with his divine knowledge and the major worry of his life is about the small idol of Lord Subrahmanya. He worried about the daily Poojas to the deity. One night when he finished all his work and drifted in to sleep. Lord Subrahmanya appeared as an old man in his dreams and told the saint to follow him. Through many rough path, the old man stopped in a railway gate, where a sincere worker was doing his job of opening and closing the railway gate.

The old man, who’s Lord Subrahmanya himself, told the saint to handover the Small idol to the gatekeeper and vanished. The saint immediately woke up from his dreams and was thinking to find out the gate keeper. Whereas the gatekeeper, had gone through a dream where Lord Subrahmanya appears in the form of the saint in his dream and orders him to accept the small idol of the deity himself. This gatekeeper was about to leave on his holiday for his hometown Thanjavur on the next day. Before that he wanted to clarify about this dream and walked towards the Thiruchendur temple.

On his way towards the temple he encountered with the saint. Both stood stunned and exchanged their divine message through their dwelled up eyes. The saint handed over the deity to this gatekeeper. With his divine devotion, the gatekeeper’s tears were the first to do abhishekam to the deity.

Then while returning to his hometown the Gatekeeper took the deity’s idol with himself. The gatekeeper belongs to the Pookkara Street of Thanjavur. The neighbors of the Gatekeeper got to know about this miracle and welcomed Lord Subrahmanya with devotion. Then they sought help from an important person who dedicated his own land to build a temple for Lord Subrahmanya. Then the people formed a committee and appointed the land owner ‘Advocate Rao Bahadur Shri. Srinivasam pillai’, as its leader. Further the committee developed this temple with the help of many contributors like flower vendors, vegetable vendors and public. The temple was completely built around 1911.

Every festivals and Poojas meant for Lord Subrahmanya is done without fail. Grand celebration of Shashti and Panguni Uthiram every year is the key programs to the deity.

3.   Bala Dhandayudhapani Swamy Temple, North Main street:

This temple is mapped as the Pazhani abode of Lord Dhandayudhapani.

Bala Dhandayudhapani, North Main street

During the time of King Serfoji II period, his first minister used to go to Pazhani on every Karthigai. There was no proper transport facilities back then, he used to go by feet. So it was a bit difficult to manage the king’s governing work as well as to go to Pazhani, as the time was insufficient. So Serfoji -II king told his first minister to build a temple in Thanjavur itself, so that it wouldn’t be a hassle to manage to go to temple as well as managing his duties. Then the minister was worried about this saying of King to build the temple. When the minister slept off, Lord Karthikeya then appeared in the minister’s dream and told him that he’ll find an idol of deity himself in the foothills of Pazhani.

As per his dream, the minister found the idol of Lord Bala Dhandayudhapani at Pazhani’s foothills. He brought the deity to Thanjavur and built a temple in the North Main Street. The location of the temple was a hall which used to feed crocodiles in the trench. So they built a temple immediately to safeguard the idol of Lord Dhandayudhapani. Approximately 400 years old temple.

Hall for feeding Crocodiles in the trench turned into a temple hall

On 11^th, 12^th and 13^th of Thamizh month Maasi, sunrays will fall on Lord Bala Dhandayudhapani and abhishekams and special Poojas to Lord Dhandayudhapani is done every year. Also this is one of the two Lord Karthikeya’s temple where this kind of miracle happens naturally, Chettipalayam Murugan temple is another temple.

4.   Swaminatha Swamy temple, Aattumanthai Street:

This temple is mapped as the Swamimalai abode of Lord Swaminatha.

Swamynatha Swamy

Pipal and Neem tree together

This temple is approximately 150 years old. Sthala Vruksham (Main tree of the temple) is Pipal and Neem tree. Both the trees naturally grown up like hugging each other. The deity Swaminatha Swamy is facing west direction. The sthala vruksham adds more power to this temple along with Goddess Vishnu Durga in the Eeshanya moolai and Lord Iyyappan in the Vaayu Moolai. Other deities like Idumban, Brihadeeshwara and Brihan Nayaki, Dhakshinamurthy, Brahma, and Navagrahas are also present in this temple. All festivals meant to lord Karthikeya is celebrated and special Poojas are done during Shashti and Panguni Uthiram.

Pipal and Neem tree together

5.   Kuruchi Subrahmanya Swamy temple, Kuruchi Subrahmanya Swamy street:

This temple is mapped as the Thiruthani abode of Lord Subrahmanya swamy.

Sri Subrahmanya Swamy, valli, Devasena, Kuruchi Theru

Approximately 250 years old temple has much more to speak about. Soora Samharam is celebrated in a grand manner. Getting spear from Goddess Parvathi on the fifth day and destruction of the demon Soora Padman is an important event that you can’t miss in this temple.

Valli Devasena Sametha Sri Subrahmanya Swamy

The whole six day festival is celebrated delightfully by performing Poojas and different decorations with the Vahana of Lord Subrahmanya. First day in elephant vehicle, second day in horse vehicle, third day in rishabha (bull) vehicle, fourth day in swam (hamsa) vehicle, getting spear on the fifth day and destroying the demon on sixth day; this is how the 6 days long Shashti is celebrated. At the end of the 6^th day nearly 2 hours abhishekam and Veenai concert is done in order to cool down Lord Subrahmanya after the destruction of Soora Padman.

During these 6 day festival Lord Subrahmanya will be carrying a silver knife tied around his waist, whereas spear is his main weapon.

Yagashala Pooja

Deeparadhanai is done just by showing deity’s face and covering the rest of the body. Around 12 ‘o’clock in the night, nearly 400 people who keep fasting on this occasion will break their fast with the Prasadam.

Lord Muruga

Abhishekam to Lord Subrahmanya in the form of Asthira Deva will be done in the nearby Vadavar River, tributary of Cauvery River. Asthira devar and all the devotees will take a dip in the river simultaneously. Thirukalyana Utsavam is done in the evening and on the next day Lord Subrahmanya swamy along with his wives will come around the streets (Veedhi Ulaa).

Thirugnanasambandar is also present in this temple. Every year on the Moola Nakshathra (star) day of Thamizh month Vaikasi, guru Pooja and Muthu Pallakku seva is done. Muthu Pallakku is one of the oldest seva done in Thanjavur.  

Specialties of this temple is as follows:

• Lord Subrahmanya will be destroying the demon with his old traditional copper spear. In that Lord Shanmuga is embedded on that copper spear.
• During these 6 days festival, Shutgandham is only available very rarely in any temples. That Shutgandham is made up of pure saffron flower, pure sandal, pure kasturi, Gorodhanai, raw camphor and Javvadhu is mixed and applied in Lord Subrahmanya’s chest, forehead and head to cool down the anger of the deity after abhishekam. It is provided to women and it’s edible to consume. It can solve the body heat related issues of women.
• We can witness that the Lord Subrahmanya’s face turning into anger after getting the spear from Goddess Parvathi.

This temple holds an important place among the other 5 abodes of Lord Murugan in Thanjavur.

6.   Dhandayudhapani Swami temple, Chinna Arisikkara Street:

This temple is mapped as the Pazhamudhircholai abode of Lord Karthikeya.

Sri Dhandayudhapani Swamy, Arisikkara Street

Approximately 200 years old temple. The main deity is facing west direction. Rahu – kethu in the Navagraha makes this temple a Parihara sthalam. We can also see the vehicle of Lord Muruga is Elephant. Elephant vehicle to deity is available only in temples where it is believed that Lord Indiran came and worshipped the deity. Lord Murugan poses as Bala Dhandayudhapani in this temple.

During the Shashti Utsavam, approximately 200 - 250 people from in and around Thanjavur goes by feet to all the 6 temples. They will start from Lord Karthikeya's sanctum in the Brihadeeshwarar temple and will end up in the Pookkara street temple.

Ending up such a long post of Lord Karthikeya’s special 6 abodes in Thanjavur and marking up the end of the Karthigai Thamizh month.
Image courtesy: Respective temple priests.

Yours East Gaterr