Samayapuram Mariamman Temple
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Arulmigu Sri Mariamman Temple, Samayapuram is an ancient
Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
temple in
Tiruchirappalli district Tiruchirappalli District is one of the 38 districts, located along the Kaveri River, in Tamil Nadu, India. The headquarters of the district is the city of Tiruchirappalli. During the British Raj, the district was referred to as Trichinopoly, ...
in
Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. The main deity,
Samayapuram Mariamman Arulmigu Sri Mariamman Temple, Samayapuram is an ancient Hinduism, Hindu temple in Tiruchirappalli district in Tamil Nadu, India. The main deity, Samayapuram Mariamman, a form of Adi Parashakti and Mariamman, is made of sand and clay with ext ...
, a form of
Adi Parashakti Mahadevi (, , IPA: / mɐɦɑd̪eʋiː/), also referred to as Adi Parashakti, and Mahamaya, is the supreme goddess in Hinduism. According to the goddess-centric sect Shaktism, all Hindu gods and goddesses are considered to be manifestations of t ...
and
Mariamman Mariamman, often abbreviated to Amman (), is a Hindu Dravidian folk religion List of rain deities, goddess of weather, predominantly venerated in the rural areas of South India. Her festivals are held during the late summer/early autumn season ...
, is made of sand and clay with extractions of medicinal herbs unlike many of the traditional stone idols and is considered as most powerful
Goddess A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hinduism, Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all re ...
, and hence unlike many other Hindu deities there are no ''
abhishekam Abhisheka () is a religious Ritual, rite or method of prayer in which a devotee pours a liquid offering on an image or murti of a deity. This is common to religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Hinduism An abhiṣeka is conducted ...
s'' (sacred bathing) conducted to the main deity, but instead the "abishekam" is done to the small stone statue in front of it. Devotees also offer '' mavilakku'' (Tamil - மாவிளக்கு), a sweet dish made of jaggery, rice flour and ghee. Offerings of raw
salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...
and
neem ''Azadirachta indica'', commonly known as neem, margosa, nimtree or Indian lilac, is a tree in the mahogany family Meliaceae. It is one of the two species in the genus '' Azadirachta''. It is native to the Indian subcontinent and to parts of S ...
leaves are also made to the Goddess by the rural devotees. The temple attracts thousands of devotees on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays, the holy days for Mariamman. Samayapuram is the second most wealthy (in terms of cash flows) temple in Tamil Nadu after
Palani Palani or Pazhani () is a town in Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu state in India. It is located about west of Dindigul, south-east of Coimbatore, north-west of Madurai, from Kodaikanal. The Palani Murugan Temple or Arulmigu Dhandayut ...
.


History

The history of the temple is unclear. In the early 18th century, King Vijayaraya Chakravarti II built the present day form of the temple. There is scant history of the period before that though it is believed that the locals worshipped the Goddess for many centuries before building the current temple. One legend says that the present deity was at the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at
Srirangam Srirangam is a neighbourhood in the city of Tiruchirappalli in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. A river island, Srirangam is bounded by the Kaveri River on one side and its distributary Kollidam on the other side. Considered as the first among ...
, and one of the chief priests of the temple believed that the idol caused illness to Ranganathar and hence asked it to be removed from the temple. It is a common belief in that part of the region that such local deities have immense powers and they must always be satisfied by proper offerings and sacrifices, otherwise, they cause epidemics. The idol was moved outside Srirangam and later found by some of the passersby who built a temple named, the Kannanur Mariamman Temple. During that period (around the 17th century CE), Tiruchirapalli was ruled by the Vijayanagar kings and the area was used as an army base. It is believed that they made a commitment to build the temple if they win the war and after attaining success, they built a shrine for the Goddess.The Mariamman Urchavar idol was donated in the year 1991 by G.Balamurugan & G.Muralikumar, grand children of M.Venkatachala Padayachi & V.Valliammal & children of V.Gunasekaran & G.Kokila of No.1, Old Post Office Street, Ulundurpet, South Arcot Dist


Architecture

The new
utsava murti In Hinduism, utsava murti,James Lochtefeld (2002), The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A-M, The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 726 utsavar or uthsavar, is a form of a ''murti'' (icon) which represents a deity. The portable utsavar is emplo ...
idol, made out of ''
panchaloha ''Panchaloha'' (), also called ''Pañcadhātu'' (), is a term for traditional five-metal alloys of sacred significance, used for making Hinduism, Hindu temple ''murti'' and jewellery. Composition The composition is laid down in the ''Shilpa sh ...
'', was donated to the temple in the year 1991. The temple is maintained and administered by the
Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department of the Government of Tamil Nadu manages and controls the temple administration within the state. The Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act XXII of 1959 controls 36,425 ...
of the
Government of Tamil Nadu The Government of Tamil Nadu () is the administrative body responsible for the governance of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Chennai is the capital of the state and houses the state executive, legislature and head of judiciary. Under the Const ...
.


Festivals

Thai Poosam usually occurs in the Tamil month of Thai. Like at most Tamil temples, the main festival happens before summer, generally in April, including the temple chariot and lake processions (teppams).


Significance of the temple

Samayapuram is a significant symbol of the native culture in rural Tamil Nadu and there a number of unique practices concerning the Mariamman temples. Samayapuram has been used a model to describe rural folklore in a number of research works on sociology and religion. During festivals, it is not unusual to find people doing extreme things to make their bodies suffer as an act of sacrifice including, walking over a red-hot bed of charcoal and holding hot mud-vessel in bare hands. Mariamman temples also typically involve Samiyattam wherein through a devotee (usually a female), Goddess Mariamman chooses to talk to help and bless the gathered devotees. The personality of the Goddess as well as the tremendous strain put on the body by the channelling (both physically and emotionally), may be interpreted by non-believers as
hysteria Hysteria is a term used to mean ungovernable emotional excess and can refer to a temporary state of mind or emotion. In the nineteenth century, female hysteria was considered a diagnosable physical illness in women. It is assumed that the bas ...
or hyper-excitement.


Heritage of Mariamman outside India

The legacy of Mariamman is well spread beyond Tamil Nadu and even after centuries of emigrating from India, many people in
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
,
Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
,
Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
,
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
and
Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...
still maintain their loyalties to the temple and try to create similar shrines in their new country, raising both a cause of concern and an appreciation of diversity. There are many shrines to Mariamman in
Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
and
Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
.


References


External links


GeoHack - Mariamman Temple, SamayapuramSamayapuram historySrirangam Temple, Related placetemple
{{Authority control Hindu temples in Tiruchirappalli Mariamman temples