Old World Charm - The Thinnai, The Traditional Well and the Vathima Iyers - A LIFE that once was in our historical temple towns
Thippi Raja Puram continues to be vibrant with Vedic Recital reverberating through the day in the Agraharam
The Venugopalaswamy temple dates back to the period of Thippaya Nayakar while the Vikrama Choleswarar temple is named after the Chozha King Vikrama Chozha
It is not yet 6am on Sunday morning and the young boys on East and South Agraharam streets of Vikrama Chola period Thippi Raja Puram, located between the tributaries of Kudamurutti, Thirumalai and Mudikondan rivers, are already reciting the Vedas in chorus. For these students there is no waking up late on Sunday and a relaxed weekend that city residents are used to these days. The young boys from the Vedic Patshaalas are traditional and respectful and take you back to the historical days of Vedic recitals being an integral part of every temple town. In addition to vedic patshalas, there is also a Shiva Agama Patshala in Thippirajapuram with acharyas and students alike coming from different parts of the country including from UP and Rajasthan. The tradional agraharam, renowned for Vathima Iyers, is marked by the early morning chirping of Peacocks that are seen in abundance on the South Street and around the Venugopalaswamy temple.
Thippi Raja Puram has been named after Thippi Deva Rayar, the relative of Vijayanagara King Harihara II, who stayed here for sometime. An art lover Thippi Deva Rayar created the beautiful sculptures that one sees in the towering Raja Gopuram at the Sarangapani temple in Thiru Kudanthai (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2017/06/sarangapani-koil-thiru-kudanthai.html).
Agraharam remains intact
On the South Street Agraharam are several Octogenarians who have all returned to their ancestral homes after retirement and have been here for the last 25 years.
89year old PR Mahalingam is one such who is just a couple of houses away from the Patshala. He recounts the days from the 1940s when he schooled here staying in this same over a 100years old agraharam traditional type home that also has a well inside having come here from Konerirajapuram (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2019/03/konerirajapuram-thiru-nallam.html) and having undertaken Veda Adyayanam at the Patshala in Thiru Ananthapuram. He went on to become a school teacher and later the Head Master. While his three sons went on to take up three different professions, his young grandson took to Veda Adyayanam at a Patshala near Kanchipuram, sports a tuft and is now into Veda Parayanam, a welcome development “With the hereditary priests performing pooja in both the Vishnu and Shiva temples and the residents taking care of the utsavams, the temples have retained the traditional devotional intent all through. The entire agraharam was vibrant in those decades with early morning kolams dotting the entire South Street leading to the Perumal temple.”
Long South Agraharam leading to the Perumal Temple
A couple of houses away is 80 year old R Pichumani, whose appa was an agriculturist and his thatha the Panchayat President in the first half of the 20th Century “All the four streets were in the traditional agraharam styled format. Almost all the residents were Vathima Smarthas with just a couple of Iyengar families including the Perumal Koil priest. At one point in the 2nd half of the last century, there were three generations of the family living in the same house in the joint family system that prevailed at that time. Almost all the houses in the agraharam are over a 100 years old and most have stuck to the traditional format except a few in the North street.”
At the far West end of South Street is the Venugopalaswamy Temple. Thippaya Nayakkar undertook renovation of the Varadarajaswamy (Moolavar) temple and presented to the temple the processional idols of Venugopalaswamy, Rukmini and Satyabhama from his palace in Thanjavur and consecrated the idols at this temple.
Pichumani remembers vividly the story narrated by his Thatha during his childhood“The Perumal Koil had sunk beneath the earth at the end of the 19th Century. Residents who used to have darshan of the Deepa Aaradhanai from their homes could no longer have darshan. It was my Thatha who took efforts to build it and bring it to the current structure that one sees now."
The consecration of the rebuilt temple took place in 1928.
Nathan Koil Divya Desam Perumal makes an annual trip here
47 year old Venkatakrishnan Bhattar has lived all his life at the west end of the south Agraharam and is continuing the hereditary archaka service that his forefathers had performed. He has been performing this service for close to two decades now. His appa, Ramamoorthy Bhattachar, had performed arathanam at this temple till the time he was into his 80s from the time he was a teenager.
This is believed to be the Abhimana Perumal for Jagannathan Perumal of Nandipura Vinnagaram Divya Desam in Nathan Koil (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2008/02/108-divya-desam-nathan-koil-nandipura.html). “Jagannathan Perumal used to visit this temple on his way to Thillaambur, near Valangaiman on his annual trip. Once upon a time there used to be grand utsavams. We are now trying to revive the Brahmotsavam and the Pavitrotsavam” says Venkatakrishnan Bhattar
Street Processions have continued to be part of this temple’s utsavams with Garuda Sevai on Akshaya Trithi. Punarvasu is celebrated in a grand way each month. The 26th day of Margazhi is the occasion for Thiru Kalyanam.
In the century gone by, 100 Kalam of Paddy was handed to the priest annually “Our forefathers lived a contended life with this income. The residents of the agraharam also took good care of the priests.”
CUB Kamakoti's forefathers' contributions
City Union Bank’s Managing Director N Kamakoti has been the trustee of the Venugopalaswamy temple for over 15years. His Thatha G Vaidhyanathan Iyer, who passed away in 2002 at the age of 95, managed the temple as the trustee for well over five decades.
A large scale consecration had taken place just under a 100 years ago. Following this, Kamakodi's thatha took over as the trustee and managed the temple for over 50years. During the Radha Kalyanam, one of the grandest occasions at the Perumal temple, guests in large numbers stayed at our house in the Agraharam.
Great Unity among the residents
A distinctive feature of Thippi Raja Puram has been the longstanding unity among the residents which is a great positive for this ancient temple town.
The standout feature in the agraharam has been the unity of the residents over a long period of time. Each resident has taken the mandagapadi for an Utsavam. For each of the nine days of Navarathri, there is a resident who has taken responsibility for the conduct bearing all the expenses of the utsavam. There was and continues to be great unity among the residents in the agraharam. The recent consecration too took place through the individual contributions of the residents of the agraharam in Thippirajapuram.
Kutcheris and Hari Kathas too were an integral part of temple utsavams. Radha Kalyanam, Garuda Sevai and Navarathri have all been celebrated at the Perumal Temple in a grand way with active participation from the residents.
Sticking to tradition
Residents do not eat without darshan of the Lord in one of the two temples. Pichumani's wife Janaki too has seen Thippirajapuram from her young teenage days from the 1950s ‘We have lived here in the South Agraharam for five generations. I am happy that everyone has on the South Street has agreed to stick to the traditional format homes. The traditional look remains intact with a Thinnai at the entrance welcoming every guest. The priests in both the temples too have been hereditary and the next gen continue to perform service to this day.”
Creating Vedic Scholars from Thippi Raja Puram
77 year old S Raman, who lives on the West Agraharam, studied at the Kumbakonam College and has remained here all his life. He recounts the vedic chanting resonating through the day in the agraharams at Thippirajapuram “Seetharama Ganapadigal made a big positive impact at Thippirajapuram. He ran a Yajur Veda Patshala on the South Street and created the next generation of Vedic Scholars each of whom has gone on to carve a name for himself. The joint family system that existed till the time the previous generation moved into cities ensured that for a large part there was great unity within the family members and within the community that lived here in the Agraharam.”
There was a Saama Veda Patshala near the Pillayar Koil with 15 students being initiated at any point of time.
Some changes in the North Agraharam
Unfortunately the North Street sports a different picture. In the last decade, modern houses have come up just behind the several centuries old Vikrama Choleswarar temple. Rajesh Shivachariar, whose forefathers lived once in the traditional agraharam styled house and performed archaka service at the temple, too lives in a modern construction, a far cry from his childhood days when he says there were a couple of traditional families who lived in great contentment.
The story goes that in the 12th Century AD, Vikrama Chola visited the temple and undertook a renovation exercise. He also prayed for the Lord to be referred to in his name as Vikrama Choleswarar, a sculpture is seen of him invoking the blessings of the Lord. The recently found inscription at the Vikrama Choleswarar temple points to this temple having existed prior to the Muslim Invasion.
Committed and Sincere priests
Rajesh Shivachariar's forefathers have been the hereditary priests at the temple. His great grand father Raja Gurukal served at the temple for seven decades, while his thatha Swaminathan Gurukal too performed aradhanam for several decades till his very end. His appa, Nataraja Gurukal, too served till the time he was 75years old.
While Kamakodi's Thatha was the trustee at the Perumal temple, another resident on the South Street, Balu took the responsibility of being the trustee of the Vikrama Choleswarar temple before HR &CE took over the temple from Balu. Interestingly, the Perumal temple administration held strong and Kamakodi's thatha refused to hand over the temple to the HR & CE and continued to manage the temple as the trustee through the second half of the 20th Century. The Perumal temple is run by Kamakodi as the trustee, the HR &CE has been administrators of the Vikrama Choleswarar temple for the last several decades and that has not been happy news for the priests, like in so many remote temples in Tamil Nadu.
Unfortunately for the Shivachariar's family, the paddy income that came in from the trustee dwindled once the HR & CE took over. For many decades Nataraja Shivachariar did not receive his salary in the form of Paddy "It was a financially challenging childhood. We lived as a joint family of 15members in the old styled agraharam house on the North Street. It was only through the contribution of the residents in the agraharam that we survived that phase"recounts Rajesh Shivachariar from his growing up years in the 1980s.
45 year old Rajesh Shivacharaiar, who brother Manikandan Shivachariar has the official HR &CE archaka posting, studied till class VIII before being initiated in the Vedas and Agamas at Thirupanthurai. Even as a young teenager he had joined the temple service under the guidance of his appa "He would ask me to take care of the abhisekam in other sannidhis in the temple and kept a watchful eye on me to see if I performed the service with devotion."
He says that devotees have had their wedding wishes fulfilled after invoking the blessings of Vikrama Choleswarar and Annai Abirami and performing Manjal archanai here.
"It is through the support of Brahmma Vidya Sabha of CUB's Kamakodi that the temple has managed the conduct of daily poojas and the utsavams 'CUB's MD ensures that there is no shortage in this temple of any pooja items at any point of time' says Rajesh Shivachariar.
Pradosham, Karthigai, Pournami days sees big celebration at this temple with the agraharam residents gathering in good numbers. In the decades gone by, there used to Kutcheris for a week around the Tamil New Year utsavam in Chitrai. There are 10 big street processions annually. In Karthigai, Sangabhisekam is followed by Pancha Moorthy Procession around the four agraharam streets with the Village residents carrying the Lord on their shoulders. Kantha Sashti Utsavam is also a big occasion at Thippi Raja Puram.
Located on the outskirts of Kumbakonam, 7kms on the way to Mannargudi, Thippirajapuram has managed to hold on to the old world charm. The renowned yesteryear Thinnais at the entrance is a feature in every house in the agraharam, the doors of the homes are almost always open to guests and the original inhabitants continue to remain, though in lesser numbers, in this temple town. The Patshalas too have come back in recent years and there are atleast 40 students from different parts of the country learning vedas full time here. While priests in remote locations have moved on to different locations or professions, the hereditary priests in both the temples - Venugopalaswamy and Vikrama Choleswarar- have remained here for a century and continue to perform archaka service keeping the traditions going and the utsavams active and vibrant.
Venkatakrishnan Bhattar can be reached on 94861 56969 and Rajesh Shivachariar on 97503 87311.