On our 'Pilgrimage day' to visit various temples in Karur with my grandparents, from Pasupathiswarar Koil, our next destination was, as I said, Thanthondrimalai. I’ll get back about this later. From there we took off to Nerur.
NERUR SADASIVA BRAHMENDRA SAMADHI TEMPLE
Nerur is a small beautiful village with lots of vegetation, thanks to the River Cauvery. In the midst of this smoothing, rich cultivation, is a small building. It’s not a temple. It’s a burial place. It is the Samadhi of Saint Sadasiva Brahmendra.
Sadashiva Brahmendra lived around 350 years ago. He was a composer of several Bhajans and Carnatic Songs. He was a saint and is believed to have done several miracles. He was the disciple of the 57th Pattam of the Kanchipuram Jagathguru’s – Parama Sivendra Saraswathi. He hardly spoke and was in a deep meditative state always. Physical changes hardly reached his mind, being hit, being drowned, skin being cut etc never had a slightest reaction on his mind and meditative state. Once when he was asked something, instead of speaking, he wrote up the answer in sand. This handful of sand is considered a holy basilica and is safeguarded by the Pudukkottai Samasthanam. The Samadhi on the whole was built and maintained by Vijaya Ragunatha Thondaiman of Pudukkottai Samasthanam. This sand is available for holy visit only on Thursdays!!! Check out below for the contact details to see this sand.
If you're a carnatic music singer or enthusiast, you'd definitely know of the very famous song 'Manasa Sancharare' which was written by Sadasiva Brahmendral. Even if you're a movie buff, you may recognize the song from the Tamil movie 'Anniyan' (that's the song they begin to sing in the train when Ramanujan Ambi (actor Vikram) asks Nandhini (actor Sadha) about Thyagraja Aaradhanai and actor Vivek intervenes.
Every year, in the Tamil month of Vaikasi (Mid May to Mid June), an 8 day festival occurs here starting from Panchami (The 5th day after New Moon day). During this period several hymns are sung which were written by him and also written by other in praise of him. A specialty here is the ‘Anga Pradakshanam’. Anga Pradakshanam generally is rolling on the floor and circumambulating the temple. Here Anga Pradakshinam is done on the banana leaves on which the prasadham in served. It is customary in south India to eat food on Banana Leaves.
This little Shiva statue beneath a tree there, attracted me so much. We offered our prayers in the Samadhi and got back into our car. The taxi driver asked our next destination to which we said ‘back home’. He asked ‘Not visiting Thirumukkudalur’.? Now that was a new piece of information. I hadn’t heard of it earlier. So I asked him to take us there.
Within few minutes, there we were at the Mukkudal. Unfortunately the temple was closed. It’s an ancient temple for sure. Must be atleast 8-10 Centuries old. But I had no clue who built it or when was it built. The deity here is Agasthiswarar and his consort Anjanakshi. As the name suggests, this is the temple where Sage Agasthiar prayed to Lord Shiva.
Mukkudal literally means the junction of 3. Here the 3 are the 3 rivers. One being Cauvery, Second being Amaravathi. The 3rd one is the doubtful part. Some say its Manimutharu and some say its Noyyal. A clarification with the temple’s priest would have solved the doubt and also enlightened me about several more details about the temple, but no such luck this time.
Here within the river were several sculptures in partially submerged state. These were mainly hero stones which are little human sculptures which are sculpted in the memory of the soldiers who die in the wars. That is a coracle - A circular boat lying upside down on a river side for drying! And that's me on top of it!!! We were back to the hotel, had a delicious lunch and slept off like log, thanks to the roaming around which covered 4 temples, in half day!!!
On Google maps: Nerur Sadasiva Brahmendral Adhistanam, Anjanakshi samedha Agasthiswarar Temple Thirumukkudalur
Karur to Thirumukkudalur: 17km
Karur to Nerur Sadasiva Brahmendral Samadhi - 11.5km
Nerur to Thirumukkudalur: 5km
Ph. no: of Nerur Sadashiva Brahmendral Samadhi: +91-4324-282439
Ph. No: of Pudukkottai Palace Manager Mr.Rajmohan: +91 97905 87740
7:00AM to 1:00PM and 4:00PM to 7:30PM
To see the holy sand: Thursdays only 8:30 AM to 11 AM and 5:30PM to 8 PM.
Hotels in Karur is available at all price points.
There are several lodges in Karur that are very economical.
Some higher end, comfortable hotels include The Residency Karur & Hotel Hemala Karur.
For luxury hotels, you may have to choose one of the hotels in Coimbatore which is the nearest large city.
Dedicated to Thatha, Paati and Monz.
brilliant piece..:)
ReplyDeleteYour travelogues comes with a lot of history and other interesting stuff. You really take us all for the ride along with you. It makes me want to visit all these places me-self!
ReplyDeleteI'll keep this place in mind the next time i visit Karur :)
ReplyDeletegood compilation yet again ....
Enjoyed very much your posts. Please have a look here : Nerur
ReplyDeleteWhat an unusual location for the hero stones! That's so sool, love it!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting trip, in a place quite exotic for us! Loved the photos!
ReplyDelete@Ramesh,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much ma.. :)
@Ekanthapadhikan,
Thank you for the appreciation. Do visit the places yourselves. I'm sure you'll love the places... :)
@Sathish,
Thank you so much dear.. Do visit the places and let us know your experiences...!!!
@Phivos,
Thank you so much for this. I am so happy to be featured in your blog.. :)
@Jose,
ReplyDeleteIsn't it...??? Am glad you liked!!! :)
@Crazy Tourists,
First things first. Welcome to My Travelogue. Happy to have you here. Thank you for dropping by and commenting... Do visit often.. :)
Must visit this place once.
ReplyDeleteApart from seeing the place, I always wanted to sit in a coracle.
@Haddock,
ReplyDeleteCoracle travel is a must. Its so interesting!!!
Nice Blog, Glad to see a lot of details being posted about places of worship around my HomeTown Karur.
ReplyDeleteI stumbled upon your blog when i was Googling to add details of Agasthiswarar Temple to GoogleMapMaker. I visited this temple yesterday after a dip in Cauvery on the occasion of Aadi Perukku in Nerur.
I enquired the Temple Priest about the sthalapuranam (young person in his early teens) and he explained me that Agastiar wanted to worship lord Shiva and requested Vaali to bring him a Shiva Lingam , but since it was turning late, he decided to build a Lingam out of Mud/Clay himself and started worshipping. Enraged at finding that Agastiyar was worshiping with the lingam instead of the one he brought, he tried to uproot it with his Tail. Instead of uprooting, his Tail split and he fell on the other banks of the River where now is a Valeeswaran Temple. He said its inscribed on the stone in the temple.
I did not have the time to find the stone and click it as i was in a rush to hurry home and catch the Train.
- Senthil
@Senthil,
ReplyDeleteGlad to meet a native of Karur. Aadi Perukku is such a great speciality esp. in Karur!!!
Thank you so much for the details on Agasthiswarar Temple. I'm glad someone was there when you visited!!! I will try to go there again and go inside this time and meet the Kurukkal some how!!!
Nice blog enriched with minutest of the details...Thank you so much
ReplyDelete@Jeev,
ReplyDeleteIts my pleasure Jeev.
Thanks for dropping by and commenting. Do drop in often!!! :)
I have two kind of information that the children have asked Sri Sadasiva Brammendra to take them to Madurai festival and other source says Manamadurai.Can any one clarify the correct place please?
ReplyDeleteN.Anandapadmanaban.
Native of Manamadurai.
anan53@gmail.com
Please read about these miracles mentioned in "The Autobiography of a yogi"book. pg no 388
Delete@Anandapadmanaban,
ReplyDeleteI am sorry, I do not know.
However you may find the ph. no. of the Samadhi above in my post. Why don't you call them up and clarify your queries.
nice review.i am from thirumukkoodalur.really i am very happy to see my native place through u.thanking you.
ReplyDelete@Kovai Neram,
ReplyDeleteNice to meet someone from Thirumukkoodalur... Glad you liked my post.. Do visit often... :)
i am from thirumukkoodalur. really i am very happy to see my native place.
ReplyDelete@Rajesh Kumar,
ReplyDeleteI am glad to meet you, a native of this place. Glad you liked my post.. :)
Very nice place..Well covered .. Feel like visiting the place..
ReplyDelete@Sridharan,
ReplyDeleteYou must. Karur somehow is never considered a tourist place. You should go there. Its a fabulous heritage site...
Very interesting information. Thanks to all those who shared this information for view by others. Feel like going there as soon as possible. God bless everyone.
ReplyDeleteThank you Mr.Balasubramanian.
ReplyDeleteDo visit. Its a very peaceful, nice place...
And thanks for dropping by my blog.
Do drop by often...
Hi...so happy to share u from my native.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.kovaineram.blogspot.in/2011/11/blog-post_26.html
So glad to meet someone with Nerur as native!!! :)
DeleteI returned fro Nerur only last week in Mar 2012. We kept Karur as HQ and visited Kodumudi and Palani on day 1, Trichy temples covering Thayumanaswamy,Thiruvanikoil,Srirangam,Gunaseelamand Samayapuram on day 2, and finally Nerur,Thanthoni malai and Karur Pasupathy temole on day 3 before returning to Chennai.
ReplyDeleteThe whole belt is interspersed with rivers and canals and great espcially in rainy season.
All these temples are powerful temples radiatng Divine Grace. So is the Brindavan at Nerur. Aviod travelling to these places in april and May. Good Luck.
Fabulous trip!
DeleteImpressive to know you took Karur as HQ!
But I guess you need more time to cover all the places..
Thanks for dropping by & commenting.
Do drop by often!!!
Excellent and very useful blog. My mother just mentioned about nerur; however she didn't have much details.search on Google landed me on your blog which is informative. The fact that you have mentioned the phone number was extremely helpful.I just called the number .the person who answered was extremely courteous and filled me in with additional info to reach nerur from karur
ReplyDeleteThank you so much. Glad that my blog helped u out in visiting the place! :)
DeleteHad the opportunity of visiting Nerur last week. Truly wonderful experience. God bless everyone.
ReplyDeleteGlad you visited the place! :)
DeleteDear Miss,
ReplyDeleteI'm from Malaysia and I recently had the good fortune of reading your blog. It was well-written and contained sound. In fact,I am really impressed by the thoroughness with which the blog is written. Definitely it will be useful to all the devotees who plan to visit these shrines. Thanks for the pains you have taken in giving so much of details about each and every temple you have visited.
I wish to know more about THIRUMUKKUDAL MALAYALA SWAMY KOIL. It will be really helpful if you are willing to provide me the history of this temple, photos facts and importance. Herewith I attached a related link.
http://wikimapia.org/12377793/THIRUMUKUDULUR-MALAYALA-SWAMY-KOIL
Please let me know your thoughts. I look forward to hearing from you!
Regards,
Ms MALAR
Penang,Malaysia
nice
ReplyDeleteRecently I received a post which had a photo of a 25-faced Shiva idol, with all faces smiling. This idol is said to be in the Nerur temple. I wonder if you had seen this unique idol at the temple.
ReplyDelete