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Oothukkadu Kalinganarthana Perumal Temple
Sthalapuranam
Respected devotees of Lord Sri Krishna,my humble salutations to you. I stand before you as a humble messanger of Lord Sri Krishna to speak about the holy history behind the origin of Sri Kalinga Narthana Perumal Temple, Oothukkadu. For the past thousand years Oothukkadu has been blessed by the heavenly presence of Lord Sri Krishna, as it is here that the Lord has chosen as His heavenly abode. With His everlasting presence, the Lord, after enacting His drama with His devotees, continues to bless His devotees by not only fulfilling their prayers, but also redeem them of their woes and sorrows and finally grants them moksha by merging their athma with Him. Unfortunately, none of the famed twelve Alwars, have mentioned about Lord Sri Kalinga Narthana Perumal and about Oothukkadu in any of their verses. It is to pacify this that single person, due to his selfless and pure devotion to the Lord, has composed and sung about the plays enacted by the Lord at Oothukkadu. It is no wonder, even after so many years, whoever listens to these songs, in a trance, find their self to bequeath the Lord. As mentioned in these songs, Sri Kalinga Narthana Perumal, even now, continues to bless Oothukkadu by imprinting His Lotus feet all over the place and enacting His plays. The sound of paadaswara, eminating from His Lotus feet is the sole proof of His heavenly presence at Oothukkadu. I consider it as a previlage to unfold before you the true history underlying the origin of Oothukkadu Sri Kalinga Narthana Perumal temple and about His Holiness Sri Venkata Kavi, that is unknown to all of you.
It is my sole responsibility to disclose to you the true facts behind the origin of Oothukkadu Temple. It is the practice of my father, who is the cheif priest of Oothukkadu temple to close the shrine after performing the afternoon prayers. One fine day, as he was about to close the shrine, he heard a soft rumbling voice. On turning back my father my father saw an old man, aged about 90 years who had come from Brindavan, to offer his prayers to Lord. On heeding to his humble request, my father without any hesitation performed the arathi and told the story about the origin of the temple that he had learned from hearsay. After offering the old man the holy water, he once again started to close the shrine. At that moment, the old man requested my father to explain in detail regarding the history of the temple. To his humble request my father disclosed that he has only hearsay knowledge regarding the same and that he has been praying to the Lord to know about the true facts. To this, the old man told in a majestic manner that the main purpose of his visit was mainly to tell my father regarding the true history behind the origin of Oothukkadu Temple. My father, realizing that his sincere prayer to the Lord, is going to be fulfilled, with sincere devotion, implored the old man to narrate the same. It is based on this testimony that I am going to narrate the true history underlying the origin of Sri Kalinga Narthana Perumal Koil.
The story is as follows. About 100 decades back two calves of the divine cow Kamadhenu named, Nandhini and Patti came from their heavenly abode to dwell in earth as a result of the curse inflicted upon them by the Lord Brahma, the preserver. The two divine calves started observing sincere devotion towards Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva. As the testimony to their staunch devotion to Lord Shiva of Patteeswaram Temple, situated near Oothukkadu, the two divine calves were engrossed in their daily routine of collecting flowers for the Lord. The flowers that they offered to the Lord were brought by them from Oothukkadu. During that period, Oothukkadu was populated by around 200 brahmins and was centered around Lord Veda Narayana Perumal Temple which had only small premises then.
As part of their daily routine work, the two calves used to visit Oothukkadu daily to take rest during afternoon. It was a common practice during that period to spent the afternoon session fruitfully by listening to various religious discourses from pandits who were especially enlightened. The two divine calves had the fortune of listening to these spiritual discourses from a learned person well versed in the same. As the time passed by, during one particular day the two calves were not able to locate that learned person. In their futile attempt in search of the learned person, the two calves became dejected. The divine Sage Naradha, who was silent spectator to these events approached the two divine calves in disguise as a Brahmin at the behest of the divine cow, Kamadhenu. On enquiring about the reason behind their dejection the two calves replied that they were not able to locate that learned person who used to enlighten them daily through his divine lectures. Sage Naradha, disguised as the brahmin rejunuvated the two calves by becoming their guru. The two calves as dutibound disciples became immersed in the divine nectar of the bliss that engulfed them from their Guru. Sage Naradha in his discourse on divine Bagavatham, started telling about Dasamaskandam that dwells on the birth and the childhood days of Lord Sri Krishna. The two calves surrendered the soul under the Lotus feet of Lord Sri Krishna on hearing the divine miracles enacted by Lord Sri Krishna during his childhood days.
At their behest, when sage Naradha started narrating about divine Kalinga Narthana enacted by Lord Shri Krishna, when he was a five year old boy, the two calves plunged into deep sorrow on hearing about the hardship experienced by the divine child during the ferocious battle with deadly poisonous serpent, Kaliya. Sage Naradha tried in vain to pacify the two calves. Even after disclosing their birth secret and even after disclosing his true identity as sage Naradha from his disguise, the two calves found it difficult to get redressed of their deep sorrow. Then sage Naradha implored with the two calves, they vehemently told him that until Lord Shri Krishna once again enacts as Kalinga Narthana Perumal they will not be redressed from the deep sorrow that engulfed them. They further told sage Naradha that they wanted to know from Lord Shri Krishna himself regarding the hardship faced by him during the same. To their query sage Naradha replied that this is a task which cannot be accomplished by him and asked the two calves to call their divine mother, Kamadhenu to intervene with the same. Eventhough Kamadhenu tried to pacify the two calves, the divine cow failed in her attempt. On seeing that both sage Naradha Patek Philippe Aquanaut Replica
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and Kamadhenu were not able to redeem the two calves from their deep sorrow, both of them went to Vaikunta and implored Lord Mahavishnu to pacify the two calves. On heeding to this humble prayer, Lord Mahavishnu, on calling Kaliya and after creating a small pond near the Veda Narayana Omega Aqua Terra Replica
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Perumal Temple at Oothukkadu, once again enacted the divine play of Kaliya Narthanam in front of the two calves. Thus Lord Mahavishnu blessed the two calves and redeemed them from their deep sorrow. This divine play once again enacted by the Lord was not only witnessed by sage Naradha, Kamadhenu and the two calves but also by the entire clan of the celestial Devas, who had thronged at that place. The entire clan of celestial Devas praised the Lord in one voice for having enacted the divine play once more for the sake of the two calves and worshipped the Lord by showering flowers. The two calves, bearing witness to the divine play implored to the Lord to bless Oothukkadu by his everlasting presence. The Devas also did the same. At their behest the Lord Mahavishnu, who is the omnipotent and the selfless form of the entire cosmos transformed himself into the Panchaloha idol of Sri Kalinga Narthana Perumal. Sage Naradha himself installed the divine Panchaloha idol of Sri Kalinga Narthana Perumal at the Veda Narayana Perumal Temple at Oothukkadu with great pomp. As a result of this divine intervention of the Lord, the two calves got redeemed from the curse of Brahma and attained salvation.
Even after the Devas returned to their heavenly abode Sage Naradha, who became very much attracted by the divine presence of Lord Mahavishnu as Lord Sri Kalinga Narthana Perumal, beseeched with the Lord Mahavishnu to worship the divine idol in mortal form at least once. On hearing this humble submission of Sage Naradha, Lord Mahavishnu asked Sage Naradha why he wanted to go to Oothukkadu when he had the previlage of worshipping the selfless form of the Lord at Vaikunta. To this, with deep devotion, Sage Naradha implored the Lord by pointing out that once again Lord Sri Vishnu had doned the divine Avtar of Lord Sri Krishna at the humble request of his devotee. On heeding to the humble request of Sage Naradha who wanted to worship Sri Kalinga Narthana Perumal in mortal form, Lord Mahavishnu granted him the boon that he had craved for. Lord Mahavishnu blessed Sage Naradha that once he would be reborn as divine Venkata Kavi, who would garland Sri Kalinga Narthana Perumal with his famous songs in praise of the Lord.
After some years had passed, Sage Naradha incarnated at Oothukkadu as the divine Venkata Kavi, a sixteen year old Brahmin boy, during one midnight in the month of Aavani. As foretold by Lord Mahavishnu, Sage Naradha incarnated as Venkata Kavi , sung numerous songs portraying the divine avtar of Lord Sri Krishna. Captivated by his songs the Brahmins who were residing at Oothukkadu enquired about him, to which the sixteen year old Brahmin boy replied that he is nomad. Venkata Kavi further expressed his desire of composing numerous songs praising Sri Kalinga Narthana Perumal. “Aadathu Asangathu Vaa……” is the first song composed and sung by Sri Venkata Kavi, who composed numerous songs that captivates one’s mind towards the divine form of Sri Kalinga Narthana Perumal even now. read more...
