Brief Look at the History of Temples in IIT Madras Campus

1 Brief look at the history of temples in IIT Madras campus Arun Ayyar∗, Harish Ganapathy†, Hemanth C‡ ∗Alumnus of Department of Electrical Engg., Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai-600036. Email: [email protected] † Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engg., Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai-600036 Email: [email protected] ‡ Department of Electrical Engg., Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai-600036 Email: [email protected] 27-February-2014, Vijaya Varsha Maha Shivaratri. I. INTRODUCTION Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) was commissioned in 1957. There are three temples in the IITM campus, namely (i) Sri Jalakantheswara temple on the Delhi Avenue (ii) Sri Peeliamman Temple on the Delhi Avenue near the stadium (iii) Sri Varasidhdhi Vinayaka Temple behind Taramani Guest House. These deities have been worshipped even before IITM was established. However, no written material is available with the temples regarding their history during the pre-IITM period. To reconstruct the history of these temples, informal interviews were conducted with the people connected to the area before and during the establishment of IITM. In order to gain the archaeological view point we sought the help of Dr. Nagaswamy, a renowned archaeologist and epigraphist. He served as the Director of Archaeology of Tamil Nadu state Government for 22 years. This document is a summary of the findings of this exercise. II. SRI JALAKANTHESWARA TEMPLE The Jalakantheswara temple is located near the main gate of IITM on the Delhi Avenue. The main deity in this temple is Lord Shiva worshipped in name of Sri Jalakantheswara along with his consort Devi Katyayani. Prior to the establishment (a) Sri Jalakantheswara (b) Devi Katyayani Fig. 1. Photographs of Sri Jalakantheswara and Devi Katyayani of IITM, the Shiva linga was present under a mandapam with thatched roof near the IITM lake area and was inspiring even by its size. Residents of the nearby villages offered daily worship to the Shiva lingam. During the establishment of IITM, the residents of IITM then approached Mahaperiyavaa (Kanchi Kamakoti Peethadhipathi Jagadguru Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Swamiji) about the procedure to be followed for worshipping the linga. He told them to construct a temple and continue the puja. When the question of naming the Lord came, He told them that there was no need to give a new name to the lingam 2 since it had been previously worshipped by Appaya Deekshitar. Appaya Deekshitar (1520-1593) was an Advaita Vedanta scholar who composed the famous Margabandhu Stotram and Atmarpana stuti. Mahaperiyavaa told that the lingam had been previously worshipped as “Jalakantheswara”. He also directed them to check the documents available in the nearby Raj Bhavan for further details. According to the information furnished by the Controller of Raj Bhavan area in 1959, the precincts of the temple once formed the route from an ancient place of worship in Vedashreni (present Velachery) to Thiruvanmiyur and had been frequented by great saints including Appaya Deekshitar. During a recent visit to Kanchipuram, Balaperiyavaa (Kanchi Kamakoti Peethadhipathi Jagadguru Sri Shankara Vijayendra Saraswathi Swamiji) mentioned that the then king performed the Shastiabdapurthi (60th birthday) of Appaya Deekshitar in the temple where the Jalakantheshwara lingam had been present. The construction of the current Jalakantheswara temple started around 1962 and got over by 1965. The vimana Kalasam of Sri Jalakantheswara is about 300 kg. The first kumbhabhishekam of the Sri Jalakantheswara temple was performed on 18th June, 1965 in the holy presence of Puduperiyavaa (Kanchi Kamakoti Peethadhipathi Jagadguru Sri Jayendra Saraswati Swamiji). Sringeri Sharada Peethadhipati Sri Abhinava Vidyatheertha Swamiji visited the temple on 7th November, 1965, while Mahaperiyavaa himself visited the temple on 20th February, 1966. Based on the information available, the lingam is at least 400 years old. In the souvenir printed for the Sri Jalakantheswara temple kumbhabhishekam in 1986 the following text is present: The story of the lingam, summarized from the reading of the Kakabujander Nadi which was with the Raj Bhavan authorities is as follows: “ There was a Gandharva Kumaran by name of Vanavilangan. While he was passing through the sky, he spotted a lovely lake with a charming swan on it. He attempted to capture and take the swan away but as the swan was goddess “Kali” herself, she cursed Vanavilangan that he would become a stone. The gandharva kumaran accepted the punishment but prayed to the Goddess for redemption. The Goddess relented and commanded him to build a temple and perform penance as a stone, until he was redeemed by the touch of holy feet of Thrikala Gnanis and saints. Comforted by this blessing of the Goddess, he built a temple where goddess rested and established a shivalingam at the foot of which he lays as a stone for ages, until he regained his original form. The lingam was shifted as years passed, and once a king (hunter) attained salvation by spotting it. Finally a Brahmin Yogi with great efforts lifted the lingam and planted at the bank of the lake, where it was subsequently found in 1959. The nadi describes the shivalingam as a composite whole, fusing Lord Jalakantheswara and Devi Katyayani as one cognate expression of universal peace, prosperity and glory.” The following photographs in Fig.2 and Fig. 3 were taken from souvenir printed during kumbhabhishekam of Sri Jalakan- theswara temple conducted in 1986. We have included the other photographs in the Photo Gallery section at the end. Fig. 2. Kumbhabhishekam to Jalakantheswara temple vimanam in presence of Puduperiyavaa. The vimana kalasam is about 300 kg. Also seen in photograph Prof Krishnamurty. 3 Fig. 3. Jagadguru Sri Abhinava Vidyatheertha Swamiji of Sringeri Sharada peetham visiting Sri Jalakantheswara temple on 07-Nov-1965. Also seen in photograph Prof Krishnamurty. Fig. 4. Mahaperiyavaa visiting visiting Sri Jalakantheswara temple on 20-Feb-1966. Also seen in photograph Prof Krishnamurty, Sri Y. S. Ramaswamy and Sri T. R. Rajagopal. (Courtesy IITM Heritage center) 4 III. SRI DURGA PEELIAMMMAN TEMPLE This temple is located on the Delhi avenue near the stadium. The main deity in this temple is Goddess Durga Peeliamman who is worshipped as the grama devata/ yellai amman (the protecting goddess of the area). Before the establishment of IITM, there was a small Devi idol which was worshipped as a benevolent goddess as opposed to the usual fierce form associated with any yellai amman. Fig. 5. Sri Durga Peeliamman temple Fig. 6. Photograph of Sri Durga Peeliamman The people mentioned an interesting ritual which persons with health problems used to undertake once they were cured of the disease after praying to Goddess Peeliamman. The ritual was called “Kodaikalyanam”. The afflicted person would 5 take a shakthi karagam (pot filled with water) on their head and go around the boundaries of other villages which were near Taramani. The journey would start from Sri Durga Peeliamman temple and go through Thiruvanmiyur, Kottivakkam, Perungudi, Narayanapuram, Puzhidivakkam , Velachery, etc. villages and finally end at Sri Durga Peeliamman temple. The person would visit the grama devata temples of each of these villages before returning back to Sri Durga Peeliamman temple. It was believed Fig. 7. Sketch of route possibly taken for the Kodaikalyanam ritual that if a person with health problem would pray that they would perform this ritual then it would cure the person of their health problems. A sketch of the possible route using Google maps is shown in Fig. 7. The exact route taken in those days would be different from the one shown since we could not locate the grama devata temples of the respective villages. 6 IV. SRI VARASIDHDHI VINAYAKA TEMPLE Sri Varasidhdhi Vinayaka temple is situated in the hostel zone behind Taramani Guest house. The main deity in this temple is the Varsidhdhi Vinayaka. The temple also houses two Shiva lingas. A. Sri Varasidhdhi Vinayaka The senior citizens whom we spoke to said that, ”Yen paten nukku paten kalatule irundu iruku”. (The Ganesha murti has been there since the time of my grandfather’s grandfather). This easily makes it at least 200 years old. Fig. 8. Vigraha of Sri Varasidhdhi Vinayaka B. Bhajana Matam and Tulasi Maadam The people we spoke to mentioned that there was also a matam with a Mahavishnu photo next to the Vinayaka murti where the people used to conduct bhajans in the month of Margazhi (Dec-15 to Jan-15). There was also a tulasi maadam, which can be seen even now. As of today, the bhajana matam does not exist. However, the same space is used for conducting lectures on Bhagavad Gita on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Fig. 9. Tulasi maadam and Bhajana matam C. Sri Adipureeshwara Lingam The svayambhu Shiva Lingam adjacent to Sri Varasidhi Vinayaka is worshipped as Sri Adipureeshwara. There was a security officer by name of T. N. Venkatraman who joined IITM during its establishment in 1959. He resided in the building where the 7 current Taramani Guest House exists. He was also affectionately called as ”Bullet Iyer” since he rode a Royal Enfield Bullet. At that time, the place next to the Vinayaka murti was full of thorns and dense growth. He found the svayambhu Shiva lingam in the bushes and did the initial pujas. When Mahaperiyavaa visited the Jalakantheswara temple on 20th February 1966, He also visited this temple and performed pujas to both Sri Varasidhdhi Vinayaka and Sri Adipureeshwara. This information was provided to us by Smt. Shanta Venkatraman (aged 85), w/o late T. N. Venkatraman who resides in Adyar. Brahmashri. Somu Gurukal, who was the priest at the temple during the years (1976-2008), currently serving at Dandeesh- waram temple, when contacted gave more information about Sri Adipureeshwara. He told that Puduperiyavaa visited this temple around 1975-1976.

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