Manalur our forgotten home town
We belong to the family of Srinivasaraghava Iyengar, son of Sri Krishnaswamy Iyengar hailing from a village called Manalur near Aduthurai of Kumbakonam taluk in South India. We had migrated to a nearby village namely Tirubuvanam during our great grand father days.
Sri Krishnaswamy Iyengar sought better prospects for his family in the new village; he joined the local temple of Sri Kodandarama as an official cook. He had three sons and two daughters to support. His eldest son Sri Srinivasaraghavan, ably assisted his father in his pursuits and also studied at the Tiruvavaduthurai Aadhinam High School at Tiruvidaimarudur and became proficient in scriptures too at his early years! He was quite industrious and was adept in accounting and had a keen business sense. He joined as an accountant in one of the textile shops selling silk sarees and rose to the position of its partner in later years.
Time passed quickly and subsequent generations lost touch with their native village and adopted Tirubuvanam as their native. Even the family deity was not known to them. The Sri Rama at Kodandarama temple and Sri Uppiliappan at Thirunageswarm were thought to be the only deities that the family worshiped for generations. But by sheer coincidence, we, the fourth generation descendants set out to inquire about the Manalur prefix that continued in our correspondence about ancestral place. Our efforts redoubled when we had to consult an astrologer who said that our native is not the present Tirubuvanam and also our family deity to be Sakthi or her incarnation as Kali. When we enquired we came to know that there is indeed a small village called Manalur near Tirubuvanam and there is a temple dedicated to Sri Kalikambal.
We set out to explore our ancestral village immediately. It was an agrarian village with very few huts and a few well built houses.
The temple of Sri Sapthaloka Nayaki as the Kalikambal was known in the village was a humble structure with a thatched shed in the front and a dilapidated wall surrounding it! It had a huge Vanni tree nearby under its shade a few figurines were found presumably of the Saptha Matas, and also of the guardian deity Madurai Veeran. We inquired the villagers about the temple who vouched for the temple’s antiquity and said that a priest would arrive during Sundays in the morning to perform pooja at the temple. We were thrilled and decided to revisit the place on a Sunday.
During our next visit we found the temple priest and he was so glad that we belonged to this village and narrated an episode wherein it was found that on the occasion of three lost generations visiting the temple, it would become vibrant and would be consecrated. He added two families had visited and ours to be the third! We felt immensely happy at the prospect of the temple being rebuilt.
We visited the temple a couple of times thereafter and during the subsequent visit we found that efforts were on to consecrate the temple by the villagers.
Soon the event took place, and the temple had a nice hall with concrete roofing in the front and separate shrines for Sri Madurai Veeran, the guardian deity, as well as for Sri Hanuman in the front entrance facing the temple tree the Vanni.
The surrounding area of the tree were also spruced up with a platform and canopies for the deities housed there. A huge brass bell donated by the descendants of another Iyengar family that hailed from Manalur, adorned the outer wall. The flooring has been paved and a new shed to feed the yatris was also in place. We rejoiced the occasion and vowed to perform an elaborate pooja to the deity and to participate in the temple functions frequently.
Recently we performed an abisheka, the holy bathing of the deity, and recited Sama Veda in front of the deity. It was a thrilling experience that was steeped in devotion.
