The spiritual odyssey - Nallur darisanam

By Sivanandini DUREISWAMY

The annual twenty five day celebrations of Nallur Kandaswamy is the Mahotsawam of the temple that featured the Ther – the Chariot Festival yesterday. This is one of the most intricate, highly choreographed and spiritually powerful ritual in the Hindu Culture of Sri Lanka. It is rooted in the millennia of the culture encouraging surrender to a sense of unity with the Supreme One. It is a grand fiesta of colour, creativity and joy mingled with deep piety.

“Mahan! Have the bags been brought down,” asked the father as I was coming down the steps and closing the door behind me.”Yes, The bags are here – four pieces in all,” I said giving my son a peck on the forehead. “Amma! You can lock up now. The car and the driver are ready. Let’s put the bags into the car and get going,” he said bending down to help carry the luggage to the car, parked outside.

We were flying home to Sri Lanka for the Annual Nallur festival. For the past few years we had not come down for these festivities but this time we decided to make the trip since the freshman year at the University was to begin later and our son would be in time for this.

Both my husband and I loved coming home to Sri Lanka to be with our loved ones. I was excited because I could spend time with my father who was growing old and frial. He was looking forward to our visit! However, it was our son who was most excited about the trip. He had heard so much about the temple from me and though he had gone with us earlier, he couldn’t remember much except the large crowds and the “Aroharas,” that the gathering kept saying when they were able to have a glimpse of the Murti, Nallur Kandan.

The previous evening at dinner, the young man was full of the forth coming trip calling it “Amma’s Odyssey.” You know Appa, ” he began speaking to the father, not eating his food but more interested in talking about the temple and sharing his thoughts. “Yes Kunju! First finish you dinner and then let us talk about the trip, the temple, Nallur Kandan, His environs and what you have studied about all this,” the father said encouraging him to finish his dinner.

After finishing his dinner and pushing the plate aside, he began -

“There is so much that one reads about the temple and its splendour. Its chequered history is interesting. The town of Nallur is itself as you would know a flourishing centre of Hinduism. It is tucked into the heart of the Tamil homelands. It was a capital that had seen the rise and fall of the Jaffna empire.

“The beginnings of the temple go back to the end of the 1st millennium. In 948 A.D, Chief Minister to Chola Kulangai Arya, first built a temple for Lord Kandan in Kurukkal Valavu in Nallur.

“In 1450, Senbaha Perumal, the General of Parakramabahu came from Anuradhapura to conquer Jaffna, and destroyed the temple. Regretting his action, in 1457, he tried to make amends by building the temple in Muththirai Chanthai. During the Portuguese invasion, this was destroyed and a church was built on the ruins of the temple,” said the young man.

“Yes Kunju! this was the St. James Church and it still stands there. The Portuguese destroyed several ancient temples and built churches on the ruins. They first sacked the temples, razed the buildings to the ground and used the stones to build their churches and fortified the areas by building forts. This is very unfortunate since these temples in the north and east were ancient and go back to the Silk Routes of the Sea even before the first millennium! And even the ruins are not there for us to see except that we may see something of the temples - a stone or a door jamb here or there in the church or the fort,” quipped the father.

“It was during the Dutch period that the temple was built again in 1749, due to the efforts of Krishna Subbiah a Brahmin and Ragunatha Mapana Muthaliyar a government official. Permission was granted to build the Kandaswamy Temple in its original site in Kurukkal Valavu. Due to previous incidents, a simple style was chosen rather than the conventional temple style,” he said asking me what this simple style could be.

“I remember reading somewhere that the new temple was built as a madaalayam – a small shrine. Perhaps this was built for fear that it may be destroyed yet again,” I said and the father added that over the last two hundred and fifty years this small shrine that was constructed by an individual was handed down through the generations from father to son and has grown through renovations, additions and embellishments to its present imposing form.”

“You are right about the temple being built three times over and finally coming back to the its original site in Kurukkal Valavu. Coming back to the original site is important because in ancient times, the ground on which a temple was to be constructed had been carefully selected on the basis of its auspicious situation and seeded for the auspicious signs of germination.

“You have done a great deal of reading about the temple and its history. Good. Now we are ready to embark on Amma’s Odyssey tomorrow. Let us retire since we have to leave early and have a long journey ahead of us. Is your bag packed? You must wear the verti and national banyan when you go to the temple. Do remember to put in a couple of vertis and banyans into the bag. It would be good if amma checks your bag before you close it,” the father said as he was leaving the dining room.

Thousands and thousands of Sri Lankan Hindus both within and without the country plan this trip every year. One plans not merely to be in Nallur, but mainly for Nallur Kandaswamy’s blessings – His Darisanam.

In planning this pilgrimage, we do not realize that we are unknowingly planning to transcend this material living and moving into a higher plane in our spiritual life. The pilgrimage is a natural extension of our desire for darisanam of Nallur Kandan who is at the heart of temple worship. He is visible not only in the temple but in the whole continuum of life – in nature and in the people - in their birth, growth and death. And we pilgrims come with strong faith and plunge ourselves into fasting, prayer, worship and meditation keeping the flame of faith alive in our hearts and taking it back with us to our homes.

With a light heart and a great deal of expectations to see and be seen by the Lord Himself, we arrived in Jaffna for the festivities.

“The world rejoices and the many adore
As the Sun of Glory riseth for the world’s joy,”

are the opening lines of the celebrated Sangam work belonging to the early years of the first millennium depicting Lord Murugan as the Supreme One riding across the luminous sky bringing joy to all. This is perhaps the very same beauteous picture that we see as we gather for the grand annual festival in Nallur.

Lord Murugan called variously as Nallur Kandan, Arumugan, Kadambam, Sanmugan, appears regally riding over the thousands and thousands of heads as He circumambulates the temple giving darisanam to all.

The ancient Tamils saw Him as an embodiment of loveliness and beauty, ever young and fragrant. They had worshipped Him for more than five or six millennia and this faith and devotion that they had for Him have been embedded in their collective consciousness. He is represented in mythology, iconography and painting as a deity – youthful and benign portraying the Hindu ideals of grace, beauty and wisdom.

The Tamils were able to visualise His peaceful countenance as Skanda or Kartikkeya and portray His charm and grandeur as Saravanabhava into their works of art and beauty which may be the creative touches of the pen, chisel or brush. These corpuses of the artists contain graphic references to Him in poems, sculptures or paintings.

“Mahan we are getting late. Hurry! Let’s get ready and go to Nallur. Surrender yourself to the magical environs of Kandan in Nallur and you will feel the peace and calm of sanctity,” I admonished my sone was still on bed. The young man who had lived most of his life abroad was wondering what all this was about, but seemed mesmerized by my words.

Both my son and I went to Nallur. As we emerged from the side-lane Chetty Street in Nallur into the huge quadrangle in front of the Temple, I realised that nothing quite prepares one for this life time experience. The sheer magnitude of the crowds that early morning awaiting the Lord’s arrival, instantly overwhelmed us with a sense of peace we had never experienced before. A quietitude of the spirit descended on us. There was a strange mystic aura as thousands and thousands of devotees stood in prayer. The whole atmosphere was an inspired burst of creativity – both stunning and exuberant.

My son felt that after having lived abroad for so long understanding a little of Hinduism, this was going to be a new beginning for him. “Amma would often say, ‘Aayiram thalai kaanbadhum punniyam,’ to see thousands of heads bowed in prayer is itself a blessing; this seems so true,” he thought to himself as he saw thousands of devotees .

On the dot, the Lord arrived at the entrance resounding with the cascading mantras chanted by several priests, the blowing of the conch shell and the music of nadaswaram. Flowers were showered in abundance and aarati was done.

All stood spell bound and suddenly an outburst of “Arohara, Arohara ,” reverberated through the devotees as they saw the Lord in all His regalia. Time seemed lost in an infinite timelessness! The atmosphere vibrated with spirituality.

“And the Lord moves,” said he as he saw the chariot being drawn by hundreds of devotees. It was then that he understood the import of his father’s words earlier that morning. ‘Let me lend my shoulder even for a moment and feel that I too had helped to draw the chariot. This is important for me.’ The chariot’s “vadam” the rope that is tied to it, is drawn by the devotees.

As the Lord was riding the sea of heads both my son and I stood mesmerized. Each one of us experienced a close relationship between the Lord’s darisanam – His blessings and our fervour of wanting it. The young man seemed enthralled.

And after the Chariot had moved on and the fervour had died down around us, I started by telling him abount Lord Murugan. “ All this has been wonderful to you, my Kunju . You know, this wonderful spectacle reminds me of the immortal words of Saint Nakkirar in his Magnum Opus, the Tirumurukatruppadai where he weaves a brushful of colour into the plumes of the peacock tinging them with golden hues spanning the sky and riding as a glow of Light. As the poet did, don’t we also see the Lord as an effulgence across the sea of heads and through this Light we could capture the Lord’s beauteous form.

The poet’s words, ‘Thou art ever young, fragrant and beautiful,’ sound so appropriate to me even today several centuries later when I saw Lord Arumurugan seated in the Chariot.

“Don’t these words create a feeling of fragrance, love and devotion in us?” I asked my son who was equally overwhelmed with the beautious form of Arumurugan that we had just seen passing by. And at that moment a low drone was heard and flowers were strewn from the sky over the Chariot from above. “Could the whole scenario have been better choreographed?” I asked my son.

“No! Amma you have said it so well! Words would be insufficient to describe it.”

Later that afternoon the young man was full of questions.

“ In the Chariot festival, we see Lord Kandan riding in it as Lord Arumugan one with six faces. Why wasn’t the Vel - the Lord’s weapon brought out? You did say that the the Vel is in the sanctum and not as I thought Arumugaswamy the murti. Shouldn’t it be a murti in the snactum? And as you say since the Vel is in the sanctum, shouldn’t the Vel have been brought out in the chariot today?”

“The forebears of this temple must have decided to instal the Vel instead of a murti in the sanctum. Tradition tells us that seated on His peacock He destroyed the demons with His Vel which is symbolic of knowledge and is the symbol by which He is worshipped,” I said drawing a picture of Advaita where the Vel and the murti are one. “And in an early ceremony, the Vel was brought out together with the divine Consorts Valli and Deivayanai in the Sapparam. During the twenty five day celebrations the Lord in His various forms is brought out in different vahanams – these are vehicles,” I said answering his questions.

“I am a little intrigued by the iconography of the murti Arumugaswamy. How is it amma that the Lord is depicted in this fashion – six faces and one body? This, I am sure will appear peculiar and perhaps a monstrocity to a non Hindu. You remember, we were reading the other day about Mark Twain who while visiting India never understood these figures and was not able to see the beauty in them. To him they were ‘ugly,misshapen and crude!’ We need to explain these in greater detail so that more non Hindus would understand this and appreciate the sanctity,” he said.

“Let me explain,” I said.

“The Hindu sculptor using ingenious ways captured the spiritual beauty of the memory of his experience of God in tangible forms.

He hinted at the Infinite by chiselling multi limbed images forgoing the realistic deliniation of the human anatomy. These images are not based on the human model that the Greeks used to depict their gods. The anthropomorphic ideal of the Greeks did not portray the universal aspect of the Almighty that the Hindu sculptor was trying to portray.

“Hindu iconography whether stone or bronze is premised on Advaita that is the Oneness where the One Lord manifests as many. In this we Hindus see a unity that underlines all existence. To a Hindu these images are murtis – material representations of the invisible Supreme One and this is identified in our consciousness as the Almighty Lord. This must be understood in our prayer and worship. We in reality worship only One God who appears in many forms and names – ‘nama, rupa’ as we say in Sanskrit.

“Next time we go into the temple to worship when the crowds are less, keep looking at Arumugaswamy’s faces – six of them. There is an elegance and sensitiveness of line radiating a profound serenity and perfection. The figure is calm and graceful subtly blending art and piery, beauty and holiness in perfect harmony embodying Truth. Beauty. Grace,” I finished hoping that the young man would understand.

“Bravo! You have said this succinctly and in simple language. Kunju! You must remember as amma said that the Almighty is One but manifests in different forms and names,” the father said giving me a pck on my forehead.

My son’s reply was rather interesting when he said, “You know amma I marvel at the Hindu imagination and its vibrant capacity for image making. The artists must have been rishis themselves who were able to pour their experiences of the Infinite through such pieces of art and aculptures.”That evening after the festivities were over for the day, we sat in athai’s garden when mama reminded us that Nallur rings with saintly and religious personages.

“The temple is closely associated with Chellappa Yogar Swami traditions.The devotees and pilgrims come to Jaffna to the sacred city of Nallur essentially for darisanam of Nalluraan and also to visit the sacred site of the Chariot.

The Theradi is the spot where the chariot is parked and this was the spot where Chellappa Swami spent his life. He was a living symbol of renunciation and attainment and was a perpetual pilgrim who had left home and family for homeless life.

“In coming to Nallur, singing the songs in praise of the Lord, we join in a tradition which links us with Chellappa and Yogar Swamis who were great pilgrims themselves and wanderers taking up a life of homelessness becoming itinerant minstrels and poets,” said the father.

Nallur Kandan’s annual twenty five day festival is a grand cultural and spiritual fiesta, a festival of colour, creativity and joy mingled with deep piety. It is one of the most intricately choreographed and spiritually powerful rituals in our Tamil Hindu culture.

‘ “Nalluraan tiruvadiyai naan ninaiththa maathiraththi ellaam marappenodi kiliya,” the moment I think of the sacred Feet of the Lord in Nallur, I slumber into forgetfulness knowing that He is my refugee,’ sings Yogar Swamigal expressing in a telling way the very feelings that the devotees have as they see the Lord emerging over the sea of heads.”

These thoughts of my young pilgrim are indeed poignant. The Nallur experience was special and as the spirit of quietude descended on him he poured out his thoughts.

“As you know, in the courtyard of the temple is the huge gathering of devotees for the Lord’s darisanam. All are here to see the divine and be blessed by Him especially today when He is nost beautifully adored with fresh flowers, shawls, sandalwood, jewels s\and much more. And each one of us stands in the presence of Nalluraan and behods Him in our eyes – to see and be seen by Him. Wouldn’t this be true worship?” he asked.

“Amma whouldn’t it be good if you could sum up this ‘spiritual odyssey’ as you called it, asked the young man. “Yes why don’t you? And incase you leave out something I may be able to add it,” said athai serving dinner in the garden. “Did I call it a ‘spiritual Odessey?’ I asked. If I remember right it was you who named it as ‘amaa’s odessey!’

Let me now conclude -

Nallur is a montage where the annual festival co-exists with the ever changing times but remains an enthralling spectacle of the colourful Tamil Hindus.

The temple lives on from the past alongside the present - a gentle continuity absorbing the spirituality of the devotees, the numerous mantras cascading from the Sanctum, the sound of the conch shells and the rhythm of the Nadaswaram music constantly recreating the magic moments of Nallur Kandan’s darisanam.

The Temple beckons us, “Come and see for yourself and discover your own Nallur Kandan. It is an experience and you are bound to fall in love with the Lord residing in Nallur as you get involved in His mystery and realize that He is in reality also within you. And as you discover Nallur, you would perhaps discover a new dimension of yourself.”

“Year succeeded year as I drank deep of the Temple festivities and took my fill of the sight of Kandan. How beautiful and full of peace they were/are and the world’s ills seemed so far away and unreal.”

Mahan - son

Appa – father. Amma - mother

Lurukkl valavu – the land of the priest

Sangam – the Tamil Academy of the 1st millennium

“Arohara” – Hai!

Kunju – a term of endearment - darling

Athai – father’s sister

Nalluraan – One who resides in Nallur