After experiencing the overwhelming feeling of looking at the origin of most Asian languages, I sat at the Pandya Cave and looked at my watch. It said 12!!! As I said in my previous post, the only difficulty in temple tours is the timings. It has to start pretty early and end by noon and could restart later in the evening as the temples close in the noon for Nadai Mooduthal.
My mom told me about this one temple at Keezhe Boulevard Street...!!! I know it sounds way too weird. Keezhe is the pure tamil word for East and Boulevard is very much English. I didn’t even get the name at the first instance my mom told me that on phone. My mom had that name written down in her note since ages when she heard it somewhere. Now, I didn’t even know if the temple exists till date. My mom didn’t even know the temple’s name, all she knew was the street and its specialties (about which I’ll write in this post). I enquired in the temple office at the base of Uchi Pillayar temple if this temple, a Shiva temple in Keezhe Boulevard Road exists. To my gladness it did and I was happy. However they warned me to better run to the temple or still better to take an auto as it might get closed any time now. And yeah, this temple was called Bhulogonathar Temple.
I came out of the office and took the right in the street that’s between the office and Uchi Pillayar Koil entrance and kept walking and kept on enquiring about the street. It was only then I came to know these days the Keezhe Boulevard Road is more anglicized and called East Boulevard Road, which is now abbreviated as EB Road. Finally after aboutin one and a half km walking, I reached this temple. Fortunately this was still open!!!
It was a small temple and one of the Odhuvars (Priest Singers) was singing the hymns. It was so pleasing to hear that full throat-ed voice in the midst of all false voice cine singers!!! The Lord here is called Boologanathar/Bhuloganathar and Goddess here is called Jagadhambal.
Though this is not one of the Trichy tourist places of famous temples in and around Trichy, this is a must-visit because of its bronze sculpture (which is a marvel), as well as the fact that it is located just at a distance of 15-20 mins walk.
There is a bronze statue of Lord Nataraja (The dancing form of Lord Shiva) which is the main specialty of this temple. Well, this is almost a one and a half feet long Nataraja with 2 little figures beneath. These two figures are the specialty. To the right is Nandi Devan, the bull attendant of Lord Shiva. Here He is seen with a human body and he playing a traditional drum of Tamil Nadu called the Kuda Muzha. I doubt if this instrument is still played by anyone at all!!!
On Nataraja’s left is Karaikkal Ammayar. She is a lady who is considered the best of the devotees of Lord Shiva. She was 16 when her parents tried to fix up a groom for her when she was very much into spiritual-hood. So she went into a deep prayer asking Lord to make her an old lady physically, as she considered her youth as the biggest disadvantage to her spirituality. If she was old no one would disturb her to marry!!! Great idea!!! Yeah, and the Lord did grant her wish. She lived several years with the very old physical body (with wrinkled skin and sagging breast!!!) before she became one with the God. Here to Nataraja’s left she is seated and the sculptural beauty is too good with her wrinkled skin and sagging breast clearly sculpted out!!! A masterpiece indeed!!!
Along the circum-ambulatory passage are the shrines of Nardhana Ganapathy, Nagaabarana Vinayakar, Sapthamadha, Kasi Viswananthar, Dakshinamurthy, Valli devasena Subramaniar, Hanuman, Brahma, Durga, Chandikesar, and Navagraha. The Sthala Vruksham is the Vanni Maram.
I have no clue about the origin of this temple, but I believe it must be the same as that of the Pandya Caves in the 7th & 8th C CE. This is because the temple has a relief of a fish sculpted near the doorway and has elephant shaped steps-rails. Fish is the flag of the Pandyas and Elephant railing is a copyright of Cholas!!! Might be; Might not be as well!!!
URAIYUR TEMPLE & TRICHY JAIN BEDS
From here I called up my mom and she told me to take a chance with a temple at Uraiyur and I looked at my watch. It showed 1 PM and I did not find any point proceeding!!! But I had made up my mind I had to visit Trichy again to see the Uraiyur temple and St. Josephs church. Somehow the shape of the Uchi Pillayar Hillock made me think that it should have a Jain Beds (remember the ones in Arunattan Malai) housed in it. And Surprise!!! Yeah I just came to know that this little hillock of Uchi Pillayar had some Jain Beds in ‘em too!!! I’m coming again Trichy!!!
HINDU PILGRIMAGE TOURISM IN INDIA - TRICHY TEMPLES:Here's the Trichy Temples List that I have been to & written about in this blog. Click to read my blogposts about each of these temples: Pettavaithalai Madhyarjuneswarar Temple, Thirupparaithurai Temple, Kulithalai Kadambar Temple, Manathattai Agraharam, Thayumanavar Temple, Uchi Pillayar Temple (Rock Fort), Pallava & Pandya Cave Temples, Bhuloganathar Temple, Sirugamani Bakthavathsaleswarar Temple, Thiruchendurai Chandrasekarar Temple, Gopurapatti Amaleeswarar Temple, Srinivasanallur Kuranganathar Temple, Allur Panchanadeeswarar Temple, Allur Nakkan Temple, Andanallur Vadathirthanathar Temple, Srirangam Ranganathar Temple, Thiruvanaikkaval Jambukeswarar Temple
On Google maps: Boologanathar Temple, Trichy
1.5km from the base of Rock-fort.
7:30 AM to 12:00 NOON; 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Ph: +91 85262 79530
With your blog, people are learning not only new places, BUT now new Thamizh words. :)
ReplyDeleteit-was-a-pleasure-to-read post bhusha. thanks :)
Beautiful tour of the temple. Never heard of this before.
ReplyDeleteYou are certainly a great promoter of our culture & tradition :)
ReplyDeletetouchwood :)
keep em comin
cheers !!!
Impressive monuments with amazing architecture and so rich history. Congratulations for your posts! Philip
ReplyDeletehey busha...i suppose your objective is to visit all the temple towns... good one...!!
ReplyDeletenice...thanks for the further look...love the intricacy in some of the architecture and the stylings...
ReplyDeleteIt is an impressive Temple how it was build is wonderful, your country is full of herbs and spices...that makes The Fusion Tea varies...Have a fresh and joyous you from The Fusion Tea.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post. I missed Bhuloganathar temple.Instead we visited Akhilandeshwari temple. Incidentally Keezhe stands for something downwards. I think Kizhake is for the East.
ReplyDeleteHi bushavali
ReplyDeletethanks for info on historically important place
good photos
I am from Trichy. I myself have not seen this temple. It is nice to see your visuals and read the description. Good.
ReplyDeleteS Ramakrishnan
http://oasisram.blogspot.com
Love those colourful 'pyramids'!
ReplyDelete@Navin,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much da. Btw, which new Tamil word did you come to know of here???
@Rajesh,
Yeah. Its a well-maintained secret of Trichy!!! Just joking. Its one of those 'no-one knows' kinda ancient temple..
@Sathish,
That's a great compliment dear.. Thank you so much.
@Phivos,
Thank you so much dear.. :)
@Niranjan,
Its not like that. I tend to travel and find about all the interesting places nearer to where I visit/stay/live even if its a short trip. :)
@Brian,
ReplyDeleteThanks sweety.. :)
@Fusion Tea,
Yeah!!! I'll visit your site soon!!!
Thanks a lot for dropping by, commenting and following dear.. :)
@PN Subramanian,
I haven't been to Akilandeshwari temple yet. Would try to cover it up in my next visit.
Btw, keezhe (derived from Kizhake which means east) stands both for down and east, while Mede (derived from Merku which is Tamil for west) stands for west.
@Krishna,
Its my pleasure dear.. :)
@Ram,
Being in Trichy, this temple is a must visit for you. Do visit it and write in your blog about it and let me know. Would love to know your experience about the temple.. :)
@Jose,
Pyramids??? Jose, your imagination has no limits.. Lolz!!!
Nice post. The story of Karaikkaal ammai is not correct. You can refer here
ReplyDeletehttp://www.poetryinstone.in/lang/en/2008/10/10/all-for-a-mango-not-the-one-you-know-karaikkal-ammai.html
http://www.poetryinstone.in/tag/karaikkal-ammai
rgds
vj
www.poetryinstone.in
rgds
vj
@Vijay,
ReplyDeleteThanks for spotting it out dear... I'll check it out soon.. :)
@Maria,
Thanks for your appreciation dear.. :)