Azhagar kovil

I liked azhagar kovil...might be bacause of the fact that it was less crowded...When we went in there, there were not more than just five or six people . I think calmer surroundings did help to set our mood in a more receptive frame,...We could leisurely look around us and appreciate it.


It was very much near madurai, not more than 30 km or just about that....situated a bit back,..away from the main road, in a sprawling enclosure, the giant temple stood silent and dignified....It had some huge, stonemade out houses and smaller temples in it"s foregrounds....To the right side of the temple, was a huge, archway, with strong, closed wooden doors...A bored looking preist sat before it with some pooja materials by his side.for a stipulated amount of money, (i dont remember how much),he would prepare a potful of sandal wood water,which the devotes had to splash on those doors. Then he would open the gates for a few seconds, allowing us to have a peep in....To my surprise, i found nothing there,...just a open place and big bee-hives.this act was supposed to be beneficial for the well-being of children. ...Well...ofcource we did it.

Inside, the temple was peaceful, large,and rambling.and exept around the sanctum,seemed in want of repairs too..One can easily see that though it was empty and falling into disrepair now, it had the look of a busy and well kept place in a bygone period.One can roam around the place and get lost.....Huge pillared corridors, dark,hallways,and hard stone floors,it strangely,raked up a feeling of awe and had an air of mystery around it,....that for a moment i wondered what it would be like to be caught, locked up in this massive, dark temple for a night....


The main sanctum was on an elevated platform,..The deity standing on a higher inner chamber,...and one look at him,...you would know why he was called AZHAGAR...He was a rare, beautiful idol,..tall for normal images,...It IS unusual to find tall images...exeptions being the lord balaji"s images and some others....With large ,resplendent NAMAMS,and glittering ornaments,....i just had to imagine how it would be if this image appeared and moved among us, ...with his elongated,bright large eyes,..his green tulasimalas, colorful garlands, and silks.... say, ..on a road....Without doubt, everybody would have no eyes for anything else. Here i remembered a description of lord ram, when he entered MITHILA, along with saint VISWAMITRA and his brother,...such was the magnetic beauty of HIM,...the poet says,...that the people of mithila kept staring at him throughout his walk.He was so beautiful (i purposefully use this word in stead of handsome)that whoever happened to notice his feet first, kept staring at them all through,..while those who caught his eyes,kept seeing them alone, as if mesmerised.

ramuni andam makarandam
rasamayamainadi prathi dendam
ramuni charanam aravindam
kolichina chalu aanandam

So it was not for nothing, he was called AZHAGAR.


coming out , we were amused by the fact, that this was the first VISHNUSTALAM, we were seeing on the entire trip.