Wednesday 4 July 2012

Lalithambigai Temple


He blessed her to be Shanta nayagi. In the outer praharam (circumambulatory path) of Shiva’s shrine there is a sculpture ofkshetrapuraneswarar depicting this.  Lord Shiva is seen holding the cheeks of his consort and pacifying her.  As you face this beautiful sculpture, and if you observe closely, you can see that from your left hand side there will be a smile on Her face and if you see from your right hand side you can see anger in Her face.
This sculpture may also signify that in a marital relationship, when the wife loses her temper the husband should stay calm and alert or vice versa.  In a Hindu marriage, the mantra “Samaya Varte Savadhan“, is repeated by the groom after the priest.  The meaning of this mantra is – Be cautious and act as per the situation.  Only the groom is asked to chant this mantra because women, by nature, are generally calm and are expected to be so.  Husband and wife should be the calming influence on each other for enjoying a harmonious marital life.
The angels called vasini emerged from Lalithambigai’s mouth and  sung the Lalitha Sahasranamam (1000 names) in praise of the Goddess. This stotra is found in the Brahmanda puranam.  Hayagriva taught Agastya – his disciple – this stotra. Agastya then came here and sang the popular sloka Maatha jaya Om Lalithambigaye.
On the northern side of the praharam, you have the shrine of Sakala Bhuvaneswarar and His consort is  Minnumegalaial.  This is supposed to be an Ilam Kovil (temple within temple).  Since there are two temples side by side, a unique feature of this temple is that you can see Shiva (present as Lingothbhavar) Vishnu and Brahma simultaneously from the North West corner of the outer prahara (Circumambulatory path).

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