Swetharanyeswarar Temple, Thiruvenkadu – Legends
Aghora Moorthy:
As per
legend, a demon named Maruthuva Asura defeated the
devas with the boons he got from Lord Brahma. The devas approached Lord Shiva
for protection. He advised them to live at Thiruvenkadu in disguise. After
knowing their disguise, he came to Thiruvenkadu and started harassing the
devas. The devas prayed to Lord Shiva again. He sent Nandi to fight the demon.
Nandi defeated the demon and threw him into the sea. The defeat did not deter
the demon.
He again
started his intense penance on Lord Shiva and received the divine Trisula. The
demon returned with greater intensity and started harassing the devas again.
Once again Lord Shiva sent Nandi to fight with the demon. Nandi could not able
to fight the demon as he possessed the Trisula of Lord Shiva. The demon hit
Nandi in nine places with the trident in the ensuing fight. The injury marks
could be seen on nine spots on the Nandi in this temple.
This
enraged Lord Shiva and he took his incarnation Aghora Moorthy and killed the
demon under a Vanni tree. This Vanni tree could be seen
near the Aghora Moorthy shrine. This form of Lord Shiva could be seen only
in this temple. It is believed that Lord Shiva destroyed the demon on a Pooram
star day on a Sunday. Special poojas are performed on these days. It is
believed that those who worship Aghora Moorthy would not be having any enemies.
Brahma Samadhu:
As per legend, Brahma, the Hindu god of creation,
disrespected Muruga (the son of Shiva) at the time of visiting Mount Kailash, the abode of Shiva. The child Muruga got angry with Brahma and asked him
how he was creating living beings. Brahma said that he was creating living
beings with the help of the Vedas (Hindu scriptures). On hearing the
reply, Muruga asked Brahma to recite the texts from Vedas. Brahma started to
recite the text with the holy word called Pranava Mantra, "Om".
At that time Muruga stopped Brahma and asked him to
explain the meaning of the Pranava Mantra. Brahma could not reply and hence
Muruga knocked Brahma on his forehead with his clenched fists and punished him
with imprisonment. Lord Muruga took up the role of the creator. The Devas
(celestial deities) were surprised by the absence of Brahma and they requested
Vishnu to negotiate with Muruga to release Brahma. Vishnu could not help and as
the last resort, Lord Shiva went to the rescue of Brahma.
Lord
Shiva came to Muruga and asked him to release Brahma from imprisonment. Muruga
refused to release him stating Brahma was unaware of the meaning of the Pranava
Mantra (AUM). Lord Shiva asked Muruga to explain the meaning and Muruga
extolled to Lord Shiva the meaning of the Pranava Mantra. Lord Shiva behaved
like a student to a teacher, listening with rapt attention from his son, giving
Muruga the name Swaminatha Swami (The Teacher of Lord Shiva).
Lord
Shiva explained Lord Muruga about the importance of the activities of Lord
Brahma. The entire activities of Lord Brahma were on hold due to his captivity.
Finally, Lord Murugan agreed to release Lord Brahma but Lord Brahma forgot the
Brahma Gnana due to his captivity. It is believed that Lord Brahma came to this place and performed intense penance in order to regain his lost memory. The
penance undertaken by Lord Brahma was called as Samadhu Nilai (by holding his
breath).
Lord
Shiva was pleased with penance, appeared before him in the form of
Dakshinamoorthy and taught him Brahma Gnana again. In memory of this event, there
is a separate shrine called Brahma Samadhu in the temple premises. It is also
believed that Goddess Parvati taught Brahma Kalai (arts of Brahma) to Lord
Brahma. Hence, Goddess Parvati came to be called as Brahma Vidyambigai.
Indra Theertham & Yanai Madu:
Indra,
the King of Svarga, was riding on his divine elephant, Airavata, when he
came across the sage Durvasa, who offered him a special garland given to
him by an apsara. Indra accepted the garland and placed it on the trunk
of Airavata. The flowers had a strong scent that attracted some bees. Annoyed
by the bees, the elephant threw the garland on the ground and trampled the
garland. This enraged the sage, as the garland was a dwelling
of Sri (fortune) and was to be treated as a prasada or a
religious offering. Durvasa cursed Indra to be bereft of all strength, energy,
and fortune. He also cursed the Airavata to become a forest elephant.
Indra
dug a pond in this temple. He took a holy bath and prayed to Lord Shiva for
relief from the curse of Sage Durvasa. The pond dug by him came to be called as
Indra Theertham. Due to the curse of Sage Durvasa, Airavata roamed in the
forest of Thiruvenkadu for certain time. It dug a pond at the esanya direction
of Thiruvenkadu and installed a Shiva Linga. The elephant worshipped the Linga
sincerely and got relief from its curse and reached Indraloka. The pond dug by
the Airavata came to be called as Yanai Madu.
Bhudhan Sthalam:
As per
legend, Tara was the wife of Brihaspati, the guru of Devas. She felt
being ignored by her husband as she found her husband spending most of his time
with the problems and matters of devas. One day, Chandra, the moon god
visited Brihaspati. Chandra was enamoured with the beauty of Tara. Tara also
saw Chandra and she was attracted to him. After some time, Tara eloped with
Chandra. Brihaspati was infuriated and demanded Chandra to return his wife.
Chandra told Brihaspati that Tara was happy and satisfied with him.
He told
that how can an old man be husband of a young woman. This made Brihaspati more
annoyed and he warned Chandra for battle. Indra and other devas gathered
to fight a war. Chandra was not ready to give Tara back and he took help from
the asuras and their preceptor, Sukra. The devas were assisted by Shiva and
his companions. Devas and Asuras were about to fight a war, but Lord Shiva
stopped them and convinced Chandra to return Tara. After some time, Brihaspati
found out that Tara was pregnant and questioned her who the father of the child
was.
But Tara
remained silent. After the boy was born, both Chandra and Brihaspati claimed to
be his father. At last, Tara revealed that he was the son of Chandra. The boy
was named Budha. Sage Brihaspati could not tolerate the events and he
cursed that the child that Chandra fathered will be neither male nor female but
a neuter gender. Indra who witnessed this event chided sage Brihaspati and said
that Budha will be known as son of Brihaspati.
When
Budha came to know about his birth, he hated Chandra. He also felt that he was
an unwanted child. He prayed to Lord Shiva for relief from the bad name caused
due to his birth. Pleased with his prayers, Lord Shiva accorded him the status
of a planet on par with Chandra and Guru in this temple. There is a separate
shrine for Bhudhan in the third prakaram. It is a customary here to offer green
colour cloth to Lord Budhan while making other offerings.
Lord Shiva marriage with Mathangi:
According
to Hindu mythology, at the end of every Yuga, there is a huge flood called Maha
Pralayam occurs and the whole world immerses in a deluge on account of the
wrath of Hindu god Shiva for the sins committed by humans in
earth. Once, Sage Mathanga, Maanseeka Putra of Lord Brahma came to earth
during a maha pralaya. He found the earth was flooded with water and was
searching for a suitable place to perform penance. He could not able to find a
suitable place and sought the help of Sage Narada.
Narada
suggested him to go to Swetha Vanam. He found a place and started his intense
penance. To test his devotion, Lord Vishnu took the form of Mohini
(enchantress) accompanied by Manmathan, the god of love, came to this place and
tried to disturb his penance. Angered by their act, Sage Mathanga cursed
Manmathan to be burnt to ashes by Lord Shiva. He then turned towards Mohini to
curse her. Before, he could spell the curse, Lord Vishnu granted his darshan
with conch and discus in Mohini form.
Sage
Mathanga realized the enchantress is none other than Lord Vishnu himself. Sage
Mathanga sought forgiveness from Lord Vishnu and continued with his penance and
finally Lord Shiva appeared before him. Lord Shiva wanted to grant the boons
desired by Sage Mathanga. However, Sage Mathanga did not want anything except
to become a relative of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva accepted his request and
informed the sage that he would come at an appropriate time and would be his
son-in-law.
Sage
Mathanga went to the Manikarunai river at Thirunangur for a bath on a Chitra
Poornima day and found a female child floating on a lotus leaf. He took
the child and brought her up like her own daughter. As she was brought up
by Sage Mathanga, she came to be called as Mathangi / Raja Mathangi. When she
attained the marriageable age, the sage reminded Lord Shiva about his promise.
As promised, Lord Shiva came and married Mathangi at Thiruvenkadu.
Adi Chidambaram:
This
temple is considered to be the Adi Chidambaram (First Chidambaram) because Lord
Shiva was said to have danced first at this temple before dancing at
Chidambaram. Lord Shiva performed seven forms of Tandavas called Ananda
Thandavam, Sandhya Thandavam, Samhara Thandavam, Tripurantaka Thandavam, Urdhva
Thandavam, Bhujanga Thandavam and Lalita Thandavam here. Lord Nataraja holds
seven instruments here confirming that he had performed seven thandavams here.
Lord
Shiva performed Anandha Thandavam here at the request of goddess Parvati. While
dancing, three drops of water fell from his three eyes resulting in the
formation of three theerthams namely Agni Theertham, Surya Theertham and
Chandra Theertham. Like Govindaraja Perumal Temple inside Chidambaram Nataraja Temple, there is shrine for Vishnu called Swetha Vana Perumal in the temple premises. The temple pooja is similar to Chidambaram for Spadika Lingam and
also has Chidambara Rahasyam.
Vedarasi got relief of brahmahatya dosha here:
Once, a brahmin
named Vedarasi had placed his food in the hollow of a tree during his journey
but he did not knew that a venomous snake lived in the hollow. The snake spewed
its poison the food. The brahmin did not knew about the poisoned food and
offered the food to a hungry vedic priest. The priest fell dead after consuming
the food. Thus, Vedarasi was afflicted with brahmahatya dosha. He came to
Thiruvenkadu, worshipped Lord Shiva of this temple and was absolved of his
brahmahatya dosha.
Lord Yama was punished by Lord Shiva for trying to take
the life of Sage Svetaketu:
As per
legend, Sage Svetaketu was the son of sage Uddalaka. He was destined
to die at the age of 8 similar to Sage Markandeya (who was destined to die at
the age of 16). Sage Svetaketu was an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva. He
came to know about his death at the age of eight, so he came to Thiruvenkadu
and was performing Shiva Pooja sincerely. Lord Yama came to take his life when
he reached eight. He sprung his noose around the neck of the sage Svetaketu.
Lord Shiva appeared and punished Yama for trying to take the life of Svetaketu.
Lord Yama prayed to Lord Shiva here and was relieved of his curse.
Pillai Idukki Ambal:
When
Sambandar visited Thiruvenkadu, he visualized Thiruvenkadu as Kailash and
considered each sand particles as Shiva Lingams. Hence, he was afraid of
walking over it. He called Mother Parvati as Ammaye and requested her to help
him to have darshan of Lord Shiva. Seeing his cry, Mother Parvati came and
carried child Sambandar on her hip to the temple. Thus, she came to be called
as Pillai Idukki Ambal (Mother with child on her hip). The place from where Sambandar
called Mother Parvati came to be called as Koopittan Kulam.
Thiruvenkadu:
Once,
this place was surrounded by thick forests on all sides and when seen from a
distance it used to look white and hence the place came to be called as
Thiruvenkadu. The name Thiruvenkadu means sacred white forest in Tamil (Ven
means white and Kadu means forest). It is called as Swetharanyam in Sanskrit
(Swetam means white and Aranyam means forest).
Saint Meikandar:
Saint Meikandar
was the first of the four Santhana Kuravars and the author of Shiva Gnana Bodham.
He is believed to have been born by the grace of Lord Shiva of this temple.
His birth name was Swethavana Perumal. There is a shrine for the Meikandar
on the banks of the Agni Theertham in the temple premises.
Indra Mahotsavam:
As per
legend, Indra was afflicted with dosha for killing Viruthirasuran. He came to
Thiruvenkadu and worshipped Lord Shiva of this temple for relief. Pleased with
his worship, Lord Shiva provided relief to Indra. It is believed that the
Mahotsavam held here is conducted by Lord Indra himself. The Mahotsavam is also
praised as Indra Mahotsavam.
Saint Pattinatthar:
Thiruvenkadu
was the birth place of the saint Pattinatthar. He was also called as
Thiruvenkadar named after his native place, Thiruvenkadu. It is believed that
Lord Shiva himself had given Shiva Deeksha to Saint Pattinathar in this temple.
Tiruvenkattu Nangai:
Thiruvenkadu
is considered as the birth place of the wife of the Siruthondar, one of
celebrated 63 Nayanars. Thus, she came to be referred as Tiruvenkattu Nangai
after his birthplace.
Soma & Surya Theertham:
It is
believed that Chandra (Soma) Theertham and the Surya Theertham were created by
moon and sun gods respectively. It is said that the Soma Kundam and Surya
Kundam mentioned in Silapathikaram refer to these tanks.
Other Names of Thiruvenkadu:
Thiruvenkadu
is also called as Swetharanyam, Gnana Aranya, Patala Kailasa and Aadi
Chidambaram.
People worshipped Lord Shiva here:
It is
believed that Lord Vishnu, Lord Brahma, Indra, Airavata, Devas, Budhan, Surya,
Chandran, Agni, Yama, Svetaketu, Kalabhara King Achutha Kalappalan, Meikandar,
Sveta, Agastya, Narada, Vyagrapada, Pattinathar, Shivapiriyar, Tiruvenkattu
Nangai, Vedarasi, Sekkizhar, Sambandar, Sundarar and Appar had worshipped Lord
Shiva here.
