Arulmigu Sri Mariamman Temple
அருள்மிகு மாரியம்மன் திருக்கோயில்
Temple Entrance Arch
View of the entrance arch
Religion
AffiliationHinduism
DistrictTiruchirappalli
DeityMariamman
FestivalsChithirai Car Festival,
Poo Choridal Festival,
Vaikasi Panchaprakaram Festival
and
Thai Poosam Festival
Governing bodyTamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department
Location
LocationSamayapuram
StateTamil Nadu
Country India
Mariamman Temple, Samayapuram is located in Tamil Nadu
Mariamman Temple, Samayapuram
Mariamman Temple, Samayapuram, Tamil Nadu
Geographic coordinates10°55′07″N 78°44′20″E / 10.9185°N 78.7389°E / 10.9185; 78.7389
Architecture
TypeTamil architecture
Specifications
Temple(s)One
Elevation115 m (377 ft)
Website
A painting of Mariamman on the ceiling of the entrance hall.

Arulmigu Sri Mariamman Temple, Samayapuram is an ancient Hindu temple in Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, India. The main deity, Samayapurathal or Mariamman, a form of Adi Parashakti, is made of sand and clay with extractions of medicinal herbs unlike many of the traditional stone idols and is considered as most powerful Goddess, and hence unlike many other Hindu deities there are no abhishekams (sacred bathing) conducted to the main deity, but instead the "abishekam" is done to the small stone statue in front of it.

It is believed by the devotees that the Goddess has enormous powers over curing illnesses[1] and hence, it is a ritual to buy small metallic replicas, made with silver or steel, of various body parts that need to be cured, and these are deposited in the donation box.

Devotees also offer mavilakku (Tamil - மாவிளக்கு), a sweet dish made of jaggery, rice flour and ghee.[2] Offerings of raw salt and neem leaves are also made to the Goddess by the rural devotees.

The temple attracts thousands of devotees on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays, the holy days for Mariamman. Samayapuram is the second most wealthy (in terms of cash flows) temple in Tamil Nadu after Palani.

History

Gold-plated vimana over the sanctum.

The history of the temple is unclear. In the early 18th century, King Vijayaraya Chakravarti II built the present day form of the temple.[3] There is scant history of the period before that though it is believed that the locals worshipped the Goddess for many centuries before building the current temple. One legend says that the present deity was at the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam, and one of the chief priests of the temple believed that the idol caused illness to Ranganathar and hence asked it to be removed from the temple. It is a common belief in that part of the region that such local deities have immense powers and they must always be satisfied by proper offerings and sacrifices, otherwise, they cause epidemics. The idol was moved outside Srirangam and later found by some of the passersby who built a temple named, the Kannanur Mariamman Temple.

During that period (around the 17th century CE), Tiruchirapalli was ruled by the Vijayanagar kings and the area was used as an army base. It is believed that they made a commitment to build the temple if they win the war and after attaining success, they built a shrine for the Goddess.[4] Originally it was under the management of the Jambukeswarar Temple in nearby Thiruvanaikaval. Later, the control was split and currently, the temple is under an independent trust monitored by the Government of Tamil Nadu, which also monitors the annadanam distribution (an act of offering food to the devotees).

Architecture

The temple is approached by a huge hallway. The entrance hallway leading to the temple houses a number of shops selling paraphernalia, paintings and pictures of the goddess, toys, etc. The ceiling of the hallway and the temple are covered with paintings of various goddesses of India. In front of the hallway, are more shops, restaurants and places to keep footwear before entering the area. Many people offer huge blocks of salt in front of the hallway. Surrounding the hallway are parking spaces for vehicles, restrooms, a shopping complex and a hair donation area, just like in Tirupati. The temple has two concentric enclosure walls (prakaras). The outermost prakara has four gopurams (entrance towers), with the eastern one being the tallest. Devotees mainly enter from the east, north and south gopurams. Due to the high level of congestion at the eastern entrance, sometimes, the western entrance is used. After entering from the southern tower, there is a shrine to Ganesha, a popular deity in Tamil Nadu, positioned so that devotees will first see him before any deity. Devotees then enter the second prakara, to join the huge line of visitors entering the sanctum. The tower (vimana) of the sanctum is plated in gold. A pillared hall adjoins the sanctum.

The sanctum is square in shape. The outermost door of the sanctum is flanked by two door-keeper (dwarapalaka) statues on the left and right and a statue of Lakshmi on the top. From this gold-plated door, devotees are able to see the main idol of Mariamman, located in the innermost sanctum after a doorway. Devotees are barred from going all the way inside, as per tradition. In front of the door, there is a donation box. The huge red-coloured idol of Mariamman, depicts the goddess sitting on a throne, having four pairs of hands holding weapons, wearing a crown with a five-headed serpent hood emerging from behind and her right foot stamping the decapitated heads of three demons. She wears a garland made from the heads of demons that she killed. Sometimes, three pairs of hands are covered by cloth. The idol is not made of stone but made from clay, sand and extractions of medicinal herbs. The idol's jewellery is made of gold. Two huge silver lamps flank the goddess. The stone and metal idols used for ritual baths are kept in front of it. A bowl of kumkuma is kept near the feet of the goddess. After seeing the idol, one comes across the idol of Madurai Veeran, a village deity. Then a door leads to the space outside for the circumambulation (pradakshina) of the deity. Then, devotees exit the sanctum and end up in the first prakara, where smaller shrines are found. Devotees then exit through the north entrance and back into the hallway.

The new utsava murti idol, made out of panchaloha, was donated to the temple in the year 1991.[5]

The temple is maintained and administered by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department of the Government of Tamil Nadu.[6]

Festivals

Entrance corridor, lined with shops

Thai Poosam usually occurs in the Tamil month of Thai. Like at most Tamil temples, the main festival happens before summer, generally in April, including the temple chariot and lake processions (teppams).[7] All the Fridays in the Tamil months of Aadi (15 July - 17 August) and Thai (15 January – 15 February) are celebrated in a grand manner.

Significance of the temple

Samayapuram is a significant symbol of the native culture in rural Tamil Nadu and there a number of unique practices concerning the Mariamman temples. Samayapuram has been used a model to describe rural folklore in a number of research works on sociology and religion.[8][9][10]

During festivals, it is not unusual to find people doing extreme things to make their bodies suffer as an act of sacrifice including, walking over a red-hot bed of charcoal and holding hot mud-vessel in bare hands. Mariamman temples also typically involve Samiyattam wherein through a devotee (usually a female), Goddess Mariamman chooses to talk to help and bless the gathered devotees. The personality of the Goddess as well as the tremendous strain put on the body by the channelling (both physically and emotionally), may be interpreted by non-believers as hysteria or hyper-excitement.[8][9]

Heritage of Mariamman outside India

The legacy of Mariamman is well spread beyond Tamil Nadu and even after centuries of emigrating from India, many people in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and Fiji still maintain their loyalties to the temple and try to create similar shrines in their new country, raising both a cause of concern and an appreciation of diversity. There are many shrines to Mariamman in Malaysia and Singapore.[10][11]

Chithirai Ther Thiruvila (Chariot Festival in the month of Chithirai)

Samayapuram is located 15 km from Tiruchirappalli on the National Highway (NH-45) which is now a 4-lane road from Chennai to Tiruchirappalli.

At Samayapuram, the Chithirai Chariot Festival is celebrated for a period of 13 days. The Festival Starts on the 1st Tuesday of the month "Chithirai" (April). The 'Ther' (chariot) procession during the Chariot Festival is on the 10th day of the Festival. The chariot with the idol will be pulled around the Temple by devotees. It is a grand festival, which attracts a huge number of Devotees.

Arrangement during the Chariot Festival

During the Chariot Festival, no vehicle is allowed to go inside the town, so all the vehicles are parked one kilometre away from the town and everybody has to go to the temple by foot.

The Crowd is so much, and though the Government made so many arrangements, still it is unmanageable. Luckily for devotees, nowadays, they are following the traffic rule of left-side walking on the road. This helps a lot for smooth movement, which avoids any complications associated with big crowds. Still, you will find many children missing, which is being announced during the festival time on the loudspeakers.

During the Chariot Festival, the Government arranges a makeshift bus stop, which is one kilometre away from Samayapuram. All the buses and any other vehicles are stopped there only. The vehicles that are going beyond Samayapuram in NH-45 will only be allowed with a little bit of delay.

The 4 laning of the National Highway 45 has helped to ease traffic congestion to a considerable extent. Onward traffic can take the flyover, while those going to Samayapuram for worship, can take the service road which leads to the temple.

For festival days, during the Chithirai Chariot Festivals, there are 24-hour bus services to nearby places like Salem, Namakkal, Karur, Thuraiyur, Thanjavur and other nearby Small Towns. Further, there are continuous Town Bus Services provided which mainly connect to Tollgate (Salem-Trichy main road junction), Chatram Bus Stand and Central Bus Stand.

During the Festival days, we can see that, the Tamil Nadu Police, NCC, and Scout (School and College Students) Control the Crowd everywhere including the Temple premises.

References

  1. ↑ "South Indian temples".
  2. ↑ "Facts about Samayapuram".
  3. ↑ "Chennai Online's article on Samayapuram". Archived from the original on 13 April 2006.
  4. ↑ Diwakar, Macherla (2011). Temples of South India (1st ed.). Chennai: Techno Book House. p. 154. ISBN 978-93-83440-34-4.
  5. ↑ "Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Administration Department".
  6. ↑ Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959
  7. ↑ "Tamil Nadu government's tourism page on Samayapuram".
  8. 1 2 "Taming the fever goddess" (PDF).
  9. 1 2 "A Temple Festival of Mariyamman". JSTOR 1463443. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. 1 2 "Bringing back the 'old ways': Remembering and re-installing a 'local' Hindu goddess in urban Singapore" (PDF).
  11. ↑ "Mariamman temple at Durban". Archived from the original on 16 January 2006.
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