Tiruvaiyaru

Tiruvaiyaru Temple prakaaram

Here is a post after a trip to India. The Tiruvaiyaru temple near Thanjavur is always a source of inspiration

Driving into Tiruvaiyaru at 6AM was quite an experience.

Dawn is just getting ready to crack.

It is the month of margazhi, you hear the sound of devotional music in many distant loudspeakers.

I found my way to the ancient temple. To my surprise it was deserted. Mine was the only pair of slippers at the gate. I was wondering if I had walked to the wrong temple.

I asked someone at the gate if the temple was open. The person responded with a rude shake of his head. He didnt know and he didnt care. The driver who was more familiar with the Tyagaraja samadhi had actually been surprised at my request to go to the Panchanadhisvara temple.

It was margazhi  and I had expected a crowd there.

I walked through prakaram after prakaram going through the grand gopurams till I reached the innermost prakaram.

I still remember the calm silence that pervaded the temple.

The Sivachariyar was seated leaning against the pillar.

He opened the shrine and performed the customary arati.

‘I expected  a greater crowd here, this month being Margazhi..’

‘People came in here at 4:30. They are all long gone now’, he replied.

‘Oho..’

I then went through the innermost prakaram until the Dakshinamurthi shrine and then came back. Circumambulated the next prakaram where it was getting brighter.

It was one of the most memorable visits.

I can still feel the silence and the stillness and the sense of peace that pervaded the temple.

This must have been a grand place once upon a time. What must it have been like without electricity? Not that there were many lamps now. How was this built so many hundred years ago? How were the murals painted? How were the stucco images assembled on the gopuram? Didnt the temple deserve a greater much appreciative audience in the 21st century? Definitely better maintenance at least? Even the floors pricked my feet.

Suddenly all that didnt matter.

I lost myself in the silence and stillness of the temple. A stillness from that pleasant morning that I can recreate in my mind thousands of miles away from there.
I headed out and walked to the Aram Valartta amman sannidhi.

A fleet of pigeons  scared me as I came out and walked back through the gopura entrance towards the car.

A memorable early morning trip indeed.