Four Temples On Ramnavami

Dhananjaya Bhat Ramnavami would be with us on 3rd April 2009, and most of us would be going to Sri Rama temples to worship the Maryada Purusha of Hinduism.

The shastras list seven ways of worshiping Rama, and going to his abode/temples is expected to be specially beneficial.

There are thousands of temples to Lord Rama all over India.

Next to Rama, places of worship honouring his brother Lakshmana are present in many places.

But there are not many in honour of the other two illustrious brothers Bharata and Shatrughna.

But in the Thrissur district of Kerala, we have the temple celebration known as Nalambalam (meaning four temples), when devotees go to the four different temples, which are dedicated to Lord Rama, Bharatha, Lakshmana and Shatrughna, within a radius of 20 kilometres of each other.

Although local traditions have christened the last month of the Kerala year Karkitakam (August- September) as the Ramayana Masam, or Month of the Ramayana, Ramnavami sees most of the pilgrims doing the Nalambalam circuit.

Tradition avers that worshipping at all these four temples should be done within a day (between daybreak and sunset) - an ardent task in olden days, when you had to walk or take a bullock cart all the way, and yet devotees did it right out of their deep devotion, as their descendants do the pilgrimage comfortably, traveling in taxis today.

A devotee worshipping in all four temples on the same day is believed to attain liberation or freedom from the cycle of births and deaths and also an increased life span for dedicated service to others.

The first temple to be attended is the Triprayar -see the "Nirmalya Darshan of Sri Rama" at 3 a.m there, and proceed to Iringalakuda to attend the "morning pooja" at the Koodal Manikya temple where Bharatha is installed, then "afternoon festivals" at Moozhikkulam Lakshmana temple comes as the third, then the fourth and last temple at Payammal Shatrughna temple to attend "night's" Deeparadhana there.

The main idols at these temples have an antique history, and are supposed to have been worshipped by no less a person that Lord Krishna!.

In the Hindu mythology Time has been divided in to many yugas (eras) and Sri Krishna lived at the end of the Dwapara yuga that followed Lord Rama's Traeta yuga.

At the end of "Dwapara yuga" Sri Krishna knew, that the time has come to leave the earth and asked his disciple Uddava to install his favorite idols in suitable places.

But that was not to be, as by the end of Dwapara yuga, the whole of Dwaraka was swallowed by the sea.

Tradition avers, that these idols did not sink, they floated over the sea water all together and eventually reached the coast of Kerala.

One local king known as Kaimal of Ponnani had a dream about the floating idols and he went to the sea shore.

There the fishermen who got the idols handed them over them to him.

Kaimal installed them in four different places as per the astrologers' advice.

Sree Rama Temple at Triprayar is dedicated to Lord Ram.

This is the most important temple of the four.

The Tripayar temple does not celebrate any annual festivals celebrations, like other three temples where the idols found by Kaimal are installed.

The original statue is now covered with a sheath made in Panchaloha (alloy of five Metals - brass, bronze, copper, gold and silver.) The namaskara mandapa, which is copper-plated, is profusely sculptured - having 24 panels of woodcarvings representing navagrahas.

Its walls are decorated with mural paintings of a bygone age.ÿ Every year this temple stages a special dance drama known Anguliyangam in the Ramayana, that is, Hanuman taking the ring from Site after finding her in Lanka and taking it back to Sri Rama.ÿThe major Part of the performance is devoted to a conversation between Hanuman and Sita.

The next temnple to be visited known as the Koodalmanikam temple is at the town of Irinjalkuda devoted to Bharatha, and is the best known of these four temples.

Built in the 15th century A.D, there are local mythologies regarding the famous idol.

The idol of this temple radiated magnificent luminosity that excelled manikyam (a mythological precious stone believed to be kept and protected by divine serpents).

A manikyam, kept in the palace of the local king of Kayamkulam, was brought to this temple to compare with the idol and to see which emits more light, on promise to return, after the comparison.

When the manikyam was brought near the idol, it got merged with the idol! Koodal manikyam means merger of manikyam and thus the name.

Curiosity turned out to be a nightmare as the manikyam vanished.

The whole temple had to be handed over to the king of Kayamkulam as compensation.

Due to the administrative difficulty the king of Kayamkulam handed over the right of the temple administration to one local notable known as Achyutha Kaimal and it was his family which handled the temple till 1971.

Lakshmana Temple at Moozhikkulam is dedicated to Lakshman, the third brother.

Spiritual advices are said to be "thiru mozhi" meaning sacred words describing the ideal ways to lead a righteous life and are said to have been told the populace at this sacred place by a sage name of Haritha Maharishi.

And the place got its name as "Thirumozhi kalam" - meaning Sacred words Centre! Later, as years passed by, the name got shortened as Moozhikulam.

The Moozhikulam Lekshmana temple has a superior status as one of the important 108 Vaishnava shrines of south India and attracts most of the Tamil Vaishnavite pilgrims who visited ancient Kerala.

Shatrughna Temple at Payammel is the last to be visited by the pilgrim doing his Nalambalam circuit.

The idol of Shatrughna is housed in a squarish granite sanctum sanctorum in the temple.

The original Panchaloha has been untracable, though efforts were made to retrieve it from the temple pond situated in the back yard of the temple complex.

The existing idol made of granite.

As the pilgrim completes his Nalambalam Yatra in this temple on Ramanavami day, he experiences a unique sense of satisfaction.

-(Maharaja Features)