Madhava Perumal Temple Next Gen Bhattar

It has been a refreshing ten days at the ancient Madhava Perumal temple in Mylapore. For two years, all the utsavams had come to a halt. The atmosphere inside the temple had been down through this period. The annual Brahmotsavam that takes place in Chitrai coincided with the peak of Wave 1 and Wave 2 leading to cancellation in both the years. The devotee crowd had dwindled, archanai was restricted. Overall it had been a gloomy two years.

The ten day Rama Navami celebration was the first big utsavam at the temple. A positive outcome of the Pandemic is that a young priest is all set to take charge at the temple. Ashwin Bhattar is just 22 years old and will shortly be completing his Masters in Commerce from the Madras University. While the trend has been for the next gen among the priests to move into the corporate world given the challenges the previous gen has faced in temples, Ashwin Bhattar has decided to join his appa Sundar Bhattar full time at the Madhava Perumal temple.

During the ten days of the utsavam, he showcased his devotional attachment to Lord Rama with delightful alankaram on each of the evenings. The big episodes and the multiple turning points in the Ramayana were presented as Thiru Kolam through the utsavam.

The utsavam began on April 1 with Ashwin Bhattar presenting the episode of a young handsome looking Rama protecting Sage Viswamithra’s Yaagam. While every evening after 5.30pm the devotees were stunned with the beautiful decorations, very few knew that it was the solo hand of the 22 year old whose had spun a magic on Lord Rama.

Through this week, Ashwin Bhattar worked on alankarams relating to different episodes from the Ramayanan including Ahalya Curse liberation, Rama breaking Shiva’s bow, Sita Kalyanam, Baratha meeting with Rama in the forest and the killing of Mareecha.

 

Three differentiated Thiru Kolams stood out during the week that created devotional excitement in the people who visited the temple. 

It is not often that a hunter king and a boat specialist is given importance in an utsavam relating to the historical epic. When Rama was banished to the forest for 14years by King Dasharatha following the redemption of the two boons he had given earlier to his wife Kaikeyi, it was under the leadership of hunter king Guha that Rama, Sita and Lakshmana went past the Ganges in a big sized boat for a life to be spent in the forest. Much later, when brother Bharata came to know the background to Rama’s 14 year exile and his departure from Ayodhya, he left the capital city to try and locate Rama in the forest and get him back to the kingdom. Once again it was Guha, an expert boatman, who created a special boat for Bharata to cross the Ganges to meet with Rama in the Chitrakoota forest.

Ashwin Bhattar brought alive this great contribution of Guha on the fifth day of the Rama Navami utsavam at the Madhava Perumal temple. Seated on a boat, Kulasekara Azhvaar decorated as Guha was seen ferrying Rama, Sita and Lakshmana.

On the 7th day of the Utsavam, the Soorpanaka ‘Nose Cut’ episode from the Ramayana was presented to the devotees.While Rama was spending time in exile at Panchavati along with Sita and Lakshmana, Ravana’s sister Soorpanaka, who had the magical power to transform herself to a beautiful woman, was overcome by the handsome features of Rama. When despite her pleas, Rama refused to accept her love, Soorpanaka seeing Sita as the hurdle, attempts to kill her.

It was then Lakshmana intervenes and chops off her nose. It is this episode in Panchavati that led the angry Soorpanaka to head back to Lanka to describe the beauty of Sita and create the lust in him to attain her.

Till this episode, Rama and Sita ably assisted by the dutiful Lakshmana had been leading an enjoyable life in the beautiful Panchavati, almost forgetting that they were in exile in the forest. It was as a consequence of the chopping off of Soorpanaka’s nose that Ravana came to the forest to carry off Sita back to Lanka leading to the battle between Rama and Ravana.

With Rama and Sita watching, Lakshmana giving Soorpanaka a nose cut with his sword and she lifting her left hand writhing in pain left the devotees glued to this beautiful decoration.

Following Soorpanaka’s nose cut, she sought revenge on Rama by describing the beauty of Sita to her brother Ravana leading him to seek the help of his uncle Maareecha who was now living the life of an ascetic in a far away ashrama after having been given a 2nd life by Rama when he had tried to disrupt Sage Viswamitra yaagam (day 1 Thiru Kolam). Maareecha saw that his end was near. If he did not listen to Ravana, he was likely to be killed by him. Hence he found it fit for his life to end in the hands of Rama and took the form of a never been seen Golden Deer to take Rama and Lakshmana away from Sita. This episode of the Maareecha turned Golden Deer was presented to the devotees on the eighth evening by Ashwin Bhattar.

As the summer heat clocked its peak for the month, Ashwin Bhattar had a long day at work on Sunday. It was Rama’s birthday and he had a dual task on hand. It was going to be the only procession of the ten days of the utsavam. Later in the evening, Rama was to provide darshan in the Hanumantha Vahanam and Ashwin Bhattar began his twin alankaram shortly after noon. 

When the screen opened at 5.30pm, the devotees who gathered ahead of the procession were treated to a twin delight. Rama was seen in a grand green silk vastram with a beautiful glittering necklace across his chest. The young priest added beauty to the decoration with a special ‘Kodi Sampangi’ flower garland that caught the attention of the devotees.

Through the ten days of the utsavam, the Prabhandham members, though in small numbers, showed great devotional commitment in presenting the entire Iyarpa and Tiruvoimozhi verses. 

While the celebratory evening began with a 90 minute recital of Kulasekara Azhvaar’s verses in praise of Rama followed by the final canto of Nam Azhvaar’s Tiruvoimozhi, the devotees’ eyes were all on the presentation of the handsome Rama atop Hanuman. Just after 7pm on Sunday evening, the Prabhandham members were back to lead the procession with their presentation of the Ramanuja Nootranthathi. Devotees were delighted to watch Lord Rama take a majestic princely walk around the temple complex carried effortlessly by Hanuman. A bunch of young vedic students followed the Lord chanting the Vedas.

It was a grandeur they had not seen for two years and the devotional fervour was back at the Madhava Perumal temple.