Karthigai Deepam / Thirukarthigai / Karthika Pournami
On this Karthigai month, rows of earthenware diyaas will be lighted in front of every house, the light from the diyas elude evil forces and usher in prosperity and happiness.
Lord Shiva is worshiped on this day in the form of Holy Fire. The holy fire will be lighted on this day Karthigai Deepam, on top of Arunachala Hills in Thiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu. At the base of the hill, there is a temple for Lord Shiva called as 'Arunachaleshwara temple', which is famous for this festival. Because, in this temple, Lord Shiva, the lord of universe can be seen in the form of Lingam called as Agni / Tejo lingam, which is the sacred place for the natural element "Fire". It is ten days festival celebrated in Thiruvannamalai Arunachaleshwara Temple (Tamil Nadu) in a very grandeur way, millions of people gather in this temple, loudly chant the name of Lord Shiva and rejoice the lighting ceremony.
Arunachaleshwarar / Annamalaiyar temple in Thiruvannamalai (Tamil Nadu, India) is renowned for this Karthigai Deepam festival and this place is one of the Pancha bootha sthalam where the Shiva linga in this temple represents the natural element "Fire". Pancha bootha sthalam here refers to 5 sacred places (temples) for nature elements Land, Air, Water, Fire and Sky where Lord Shiva, himself represent these in the form of Lingams. The Agni (Fire) lingam in this temple is second biggest lingam in this world.
Pancha bootha Sthalangal :
1. Ekambareswarar Temple - Land (Prithivi Lingam)
Located in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, India
2. Jambukeswarar Temple - Water (Appu Lingam)
Located in Thiruvanaikaval, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, India
3. Srikalahasteeswara temple - Air (Vayu Lingam)
Located in SriKalahasti, Andhra Pradesh , India
4. Annamalaiyar Temple - Fire (Agni / Tejo Lingam)
Located in Thiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India.
5. Thillai Nataraja Temple - Sky (Aagaya / Aaksha Lingam)
Located in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India.
Elaborate information about these temples will be covered in a separate post.
Arunachaleshwara Temple (Agni Lingam)
Thiruvannamalai - Earlier this region is also known as 'Thondai Mandalam', now it is popularly called as 'Thiruvannamalai'. This Temple is located on the base of Arunachala Hills, it's also called as Arunagiri malai, Anna malai, sonagiri malai, Jyothirlingam, Tejolingam etc. It means 'Red Mountain' in tamil.
The main deity in the temple is Shiva, the Lord of universe, the cosmic force, worshiped as 'Annamalaiyar' in the form of lingam, with his consort Goddess Parvati worshiped as 'Unnamulai Amman'.
This temple has four gateways and four gopurams (towers) on each side, there is a high stone wall surrounding the temple. The temple is spreads around 25 acres of land, which is one of the largest temples of India. The east side gopuram (tower) is called 'Rajagopuram' (the main tower), which is the highest tower with 11 stories and 216 feet high, the west side gopuram is called 'Peygopuram', the southern tower is called 'Thirumanjana Gopuram' and the norther tower is called 'Ammaniammal gopuram'.
This temple is built during 9th century CE, one of the oldest temples of India. Many kings Pallavas, Cholas, Tipu sultan took over this temple during their rule, Cholas renovated the temple during their reign. As per the inscription in the temple before Cholas Thiruvannamalai was under Pallava kings. It was built in dravidian style.
The tejo lingam is in a small sanctum of this temple, which is a Suyambu lingam on the eastern foot side of the hill (Self formed natural one from the earth), it was a small temple before Pallavas and Cholas comes to the temple. Though westerns say different dates about our Indian sages, Shri Adi Shankaracharya was born in 2000 BCE in Kerala, he was well versed in vedas, completely understood the concept of Advainta Vedanta in his early age. During his yatra, he visited Annamalai hills and the felt positive aura over there, he sensed presence of the almighty and discovered the deity from the hidden bushes. He worshiped the Lingam and elaborated the story about this holy Agni Lingam to the King and requested him to construct a big temple for the Lord Shiva, he referred this Arunachala mountain as 'Meru'. Some Sages says that this mountain represents first half of Sri Chakra, the emblem of cosmos.
The holy Arunachala hill was formed millions of years ago. When there was a volcanic activity deep beneath the earth, this mountain was thrown up during the formation of the earth's crust. It is prehistoric mountain, it is marked as an Epoch in the history, its a huge extrusive solid rocks covered with herbs, bushes and grass. On this hill, there are many caves, hermitages near fresh water offspring, many sanyasis, yogis visit the temple and perform meditation in the caves on the hill.
"by merely thinking about Arunachala, one can attain Mukthi", so there are many Jivan Mukts in the hill even today, residing in caves. Ramana Maharishi came to this temple and never left the place, many devotees visited him and received blessings from him. He resided in many caves in the hill and preached about enlightenment, his main principle is to realise 'Who am I?', remove the ignorance, ego 'I' and surrender yourself to the almighty.
It is believed that still some siddha purushas are living in the peak of the hill under the banyan tree and that place is said to be inaccessible. This hill evokes tremendous power, people receives energetic vibes while doing Girivalam (taking rounds around the hill on a bare foot with deep concentration and prayer) on the hill and it emits incandescent aura during moon less nights.
Story behind Karthigai Deepam
Once Lord Brahma the creator and Lord Vishnu, the preserver both claimed superiority over the other. Celestial Gods forgot their powers and started fighting with each other, in order to elude their ego, Lord Siva, the Lord of the Universe, appeared before them as a pillar of fire, known as sthanu or lingodbhavamurti. Lord Siva challenged to both the gods that, "Who ever finds either the beginning or the end of this light of mine shall be considered, now and forever more, the superior of you two."
Brahma and Vishnu agreed to this challenge and wanted to show the supremacy over the other, Lord Vishnu took the form of a boar and dug into the depths of the Earth, seeking the end of the fiery fire pillar. Brahma became a swan and flew upwards, seeking the starting point of light. They searched for thousands of miles and couldn't find neither the beginning nor the end. Lord Vishnu returned and accepted his failure, while exhausted Brahma was about to return in failure, a Thazhampoo (Ketaki flower) fell on him, this flower used to be on Lord Shiva's hair, Brahma put a plan.
The Thazhampoo flower in Tamil, in english its name is screw pine (pandanus odoratissimus), started conversing with Brahma. Eventually the god convinced the flower to support him to tell lie to Shiva that Brahma found the origin of the cosmic column.
Upon hearing this lie, column of fire busted and Lord Shiva revealed himself in full glory and cursed Brahma that from henceforth Lord Brahma, would not be worshiped in temples, also the Ketaki flower would not be used in his worship. This has indeed come to pass as there are only two Brahma temples (one in Pushkar in Rajasthan and the other in Idar State in Rajaputana) and the screw pine is only allowed in the worship of Shiva only one time a year during Mahashivaratri.
Lord Brahma and Vishnu realised their mistake, bowed before Lord Shiva and accepted his supremacy. Upon the request of the gods Vishnu and Brahma, Shiva established Himself as the Arunachala Hill and also as a small Lingam at the eastern foot of the hill so that all could worship both as emblems of Siva.
Ten days festival in the temple / Karthigai Deepam
Karthigai Deepam festival begins with flag hosting on the day where Uthradam Nakshthra appears in the sky called Dwajarohanam. The flag will be hoisted amid vedic chanting on top of Dwajasthambham, a tall flag pole of the temple (picture below)
On each day Pancha Murthigal (Lord Ganapathi, Lord Murugan, Lord Sandeswar, Lord Arunachaleswara and goddess Parvati) will be taken out for procession in different vahanas.
On Ninth day, Pancha Murthigal goes on Kailash Vahanam. This day is called as 'Bharani Deepam', Bharani Nakshthra falls on this day and five lamps are lighted in Shiva temple.
Tenth Day of the Festival
On tenth day, in the early morning hours, fire will be lit in five big vessels and it will be kept burning till evening.
A big cauldron about 5 feet in diameter is placed on top of Arunachala's five peaks, hundreds of gallons of ghee are carried up to the steep stony hill on bare foot, kilos of camphor are mixed in it for a continuous bright flame, a thick cotton cloth about 40 meters are used to make a wick to lit the light.
In evening when Karthigai nakshthra appears in the sky with the full moon, after the sunset, when the moon raises in the east, the beautifully decorated deities in a golden palanquin are placed in mandapa facing the holy mountain, five holy fires are brought out from the temple and placed in a big cauldron near dwajasthambham.
At that time around 6 in the evening, Maha Deepam will be lighted on the top of the mountain with the crowd roaring "Annamalaiyaruku Arogara". In the same time, 'Ardhanarishwara' deity will be brought out and placed near the big deepam. The excited pilgrim crowd pushes to touch the deity and the holy fire.
After witnessing the bright light from the top of hill, all the people will start to lit the diyaas in their homes and chant Lord Shiva's name.
Lord Shiva will be seen in the form of Holy Fire, on top of Annamalai Hills. Millions of people will gather to witness this holy fire and to get blessings from Arunachaleswara, its a belief that Lord Shiva as a divine fire elude the darkness from this world and remove our ignorance, symbol of lighting the inner fire. Devotees go around the hill on the bare feet as Pradhikshana, the whole place is filled with high spirits, pushing to worship the holy fire, all the devotees shouts Shiva's name in one tone and it can be heard from the bottom of the hill. This divine light will continuously fire for 3 days and it will be visible from several kilometers.
This festival also reflects the union of Shiva and Parvati devi. Goddess Parvati did hard penance on Arunachala Hill, taken pradhikshana slowly around the hill with the deep concentration and chanting Lord Shiva's name. Lord Shiva pleased with goddess penance and appeared as a fierce light on top of the hill on karthigai, he asked the goddess to go one round, around the hill. When the goddess going around the western side of the hill, Lord Shiva appeared on his white bull and blessed her. When the goddess going around the north western side of the hill, Lord Shiva absorbed the goddess into his left half of the body called 'Ardhanarishwara', meaning half male and half female. Due to this, on this Karthigai Deepam day, special poojas are performed for the deity 'Ardhanarishwara' and devotees receive blessings from the Gods. In Sanskrit, 'Ardha' meaning half, 'Nari' meaning female, 'Ishwara' - Lord Shiva.
Also, Lord Karthikeya / Murugan, son of Lord Shiva is worshiped on this day with 6 pointed star. He was born on Kirthigai nakshthra (Six star constellation) and from Shiva's third eye six babies are born. On this day, six children are merged into one son by Goddess Parvati called Arumurugan (6 Murugans). The six pointed star represents Sa, Ra, Va, Na, Bha, Va and OM at the center of the star.
The six pointed star is one of the sacred symbol of Hinduism, can be seen in many dravidian temples , also in many places like Goddess Lakshmi's Sriyantra, Lord Nataraj dance position, Meru yantra etc. Ancient symbols, mystery architectures, sacred places deals with triangle and this star symbol is one of them.
The devotees do girivalam around the hill to get the blessings from the Lord Arunachaleswara. Girivalam means, by chanting the lords name, one should take small steps to go around the mountain and looking at the fire from the top of the hill. By doing Girivalam, one will be free from all the sins and freedom from their future births.
After this ten days festival, one worships and leaves this holy place will be purified, cleansed from their sin, raises the spiritual energy within them and a step towards the enlightenment.
---- The Karthigai deepam celebrations and preparations will be explained in Part 2
- Aarthi Thiyagarajan