The legend of Sri Māngādu Kāmākshi Amman

Shri Gurubhyō Namah!

Greetings on Guru Poornima Day!

Kundali  Kumāri  Kutile  Chandi Charācharasavitri  Chāmundē Gunini Guhārini Guhyē – Gurumoorthē Tvām Namāmi Kāmākshi

This is a verse from ‘Āryā Shatakam’ of  ‘Mooka Panchashati’ by Sri Mooka Kavi. Sri Mooka Kavi  was blessed from being born mute to becoming a poet by the grace of Sri Kāmākshi Devi of Kānchi and he composed five hundred verses on Her which is known by the name ‘Mooka Panchasati’.  In this verse above, the poet says that Sri Kāmākshi is no different from the Guru.

Hence I have chosen to narrate the legend of Sri Kāmākshi of Māngādu as my 200^th post on this auspicious Guru Poornima day.

Māngādu literally means ‘forest of mango trees’. Though today such a forest cannot be found there, this used to be that forest in the ancient days. This place is located twenty-four kilometres from Chennai and the deity Sri Kāmākshi Amman blesses from this abode. But how did She come there in the first place?

Long long ago when Bhagwan Shiva and Maa Parvati were at their abode Kailasha, Maa Parvati  playfully went behind Lord Shiva and closed His eyes with Her lotus palms. The eyes of Bhagwan Shiva  are the Sun and the Moon. Shutting them both all of a sudden, had serious implications on the realms/worlds of the Universe. There was terrible darkness everywhere. The beings of all realms struggled for light as they were completely sunk in gloom. One second of the time of Bhagwan’s scale  was equal to so many years of time in the realms.

The next moment, Bhagwan Shiva pushed away the palms of Maa Parvati and restored light to the worlds. He was however terribly angry by this act of Maa Parvati. So much of  agony caused to the beings of the worlds due to Her playfulness was something He could not just tolerate! He cursed Maa Parvati in anger. “Parvati!” He said. “You have caused immense agony to the beings of the universe by this act of yours. The repentance for this shall be by your doing penance on Earth!” said He. “Go now. Once your atonement is over, you will join me back!”

Maa Parvati too realized that Her playfulness had caused sorrow to all. But being the Jagan Mata, She was ready to accept a curse  from Bhagwan just to come to the Earth and bless us all! (Maybe that was Her ploy!)

She came down to the Earth and chose this place which was a forest of Mango trees. Hence it was called Māngādu. In a clearing, She created five pits of fire called the Panchagni. In the central pit, she stood balancing Her body with the support of Her big toe of Her left leg.  The Yogini of the highest order that She was, she folded Her right leg with the foot facing upward and placed it on the left thigh. (See picture above). The left hand placed on Her navel , the right hand holding a rosary of beads was held aloft atop Her head and She commenced her Tapas. Maa Parvati came to be known by the name Tapas Kāmākshi there as she did severe penance.

The Tapas continued for hundreds of years, they say, till finally Bhagwan Shiva was pleased by the penance and appeared before Her. “Proceed to Kānchipuram and stay there for a while till I come and wed you there!” said He.  Maa Parvati, glad to be joining her Lord, proceeded to Kānchipuram and was worshipping Bhagwan Shiva there. Later she married Bhagwan Shiva as Ekambareshwara at Kānchipuram.

 The place where She performed Her intense Tapasyā at Māngādu however, retained the heat generated by Her penance. The whole area became very arid and dry  with water bodies drying up. People living there felt lot of heat around and relocated  to other places.

That was when Sri Ādi Shankara Bhagavadpada (who lived 2500 years back) visited this place on one of his Yatras around Bharat. With his divine power, he realized that the heat of the Pancha Agnis (fire pits) had not subsided in the area and people were suffering due to that. In order to help the people and bring back the situation to normal, Sri Shankara, created an Ardha Mēru with various cooling herbs. He then invoked all the heat into it. Now the place cooled down and people started coming back to settle and so did the greenery. The power of Sri Kāmākshi’s penance was now housed in the Ardha Mēru which became a power-house of positive energy.

The Ardha Mēru at Māngādu is one of its kind. (See Picture below) It is very huge and is placed on the back of a Koorma (Tortoise) shaped platform with three steps above. It has forty-three Thrikonas or triangles and is made of eight cooling  herbal ingredients called Astagandhams. So only Kumkum Archana is done for this ‘Ardha Mēru’. Its height is about 3 feet and one has to offer a nine-yard saree to fully cover the Ardha Mēru. After Sri Shankara’s visit, the Ardha Mēru was the main deity being worshipped .

Several hundreds of years passed and the temple in worship went into oblivion once again. It disappeared under the overgrowth of bushes and ant-hills where snakes also resided. The vagaries of nature had destroyed the structure. The place had become dilapidated and was eventually forgotten.

In 1952, Sri Kānchi Paramāchāryā, who is revered and known by the names ‘the walking God’, ‘Mahā Periyavā’ and ‘Mahāswāmi’ had a dream. (You can read a short history of the Paramāchāryā’s life here).

 In His dream, Paramāchāryā heard a female voice calling out to Him. The voice said, “The Panchagni fire is scorching my body. Please renovate this place soon!” Swami understood that this was the call of Sri Tapas Kāmākshi and he told this to one of his devotees Sri Lakshminarayanan. “We will have to find out where the temple is” He said.  When Sri Lakshminarayanan visited the Acharya in the subsequent week, He told him that He had a dream yet again. In the dream, an elephant came and led Him holding His hand by its trunk and took Him in a particular route for a long distance.  Then upon reaching a mud track , it just disappeared. Paramāchāryā decided to go in the same route as shown by the elephant,  who he believed was the Divine Mother Herself.

He walked the whole distance and when he reached the mud track, there was only a cow-shed there. Paramāchāryā just entered the cow-shed and rested for the night there. In the morning, the place was thoroughly searched by removing the thorny bushes, the overgrowth of foliage and the ant hills. Soon they discovered the temple. The Ardha Meru was there!!

Under the instructions of the Paramacharya the area was cleaned and spruced up. Paramāchāryā had mentioned then that Sri Adi Shankara Bhagavadpada had stayed in this place for ten months. Since the place had remained uncared for, over a long period of time, special worship had to be performed to compensate for all the lapses. So with the contributions of some people, a  small consecration ceremony followed the very next day. A Pujari was arranged to do Puja regularly every day.

Paramāchāryā’s desire was to expand this temple and consecrate the loving form of Sri Kāmākshi in addition to the Ardha Meru in the sanctum so that people’s desires get fulfilled praying to Her. And that fructified after a long period from when the temple was initially discovered.

Now Sri Kāmākshi blesses us in four forms in that temple – As the Ardha Meru, as the form of the smiling Goddess Kāmākshi standing with a parrot in hand inside the sanctum, in the form of a Kāmākshi lamp near Her and in the  form of Tapas Kāmākshi. All these four can be viewed standing in the Artha Mandapam of the temple.

And today Māngādu Kāmākshi is one of the most sought-after Goddesses whose ‘Karunya Kataksham’ (Sight of abundant Grace) fulfils the desires of all Her devotees.

“Kāmākshi Shāswati Viswam – Kāmākshi is the only stable aspect of this world” says Mooka Kavi.

May we be all blessed by the Grace of Māngādu Kāmākshi  Amman!!

Note:

1. Reference for this incident of Paramāchārya has been taken from ‘ 95 – Maha Periyava – Anubavangal Aayiram’ from ‘Sage of Kanchi’ (mahaperiyavaa.blog)
2. Pictures of Ardha Mēru and Tapas Kamakshi from the internet.