Saturday, July 17, 2010

Saptamatruka temple first of its kind in city

Karnataka is the abode or penance, land of enlightened men, sages, yogis, acharyas and the place of truthfulness, righteousness and renunciation. It is the good fortune of all the Kannadigas to be in the dwelling place of music, literature, art and architecture.

The worship of the goddess of sakti is going on uninterruptedly from time immemorial. When man comes to know of his limitations, he discovered the unique divine power, thinking that power to be mother earth, he began to worship it with faith and devotion. Giving up the feelings of the rich and the poor, he regarded her as the tutelary deity of a village, or a state or of a nation. She transcended the boundaries of time, place and community, and established as a supreme power in the minds of people.

In the beginning, she was given a form in mud, wood, metal, stone etc. She manifested from within to without. Thus, the primordial Sakti, on account of her abilities of creation, maintenance and destruction, she became the goddess of dharma (righteousness); from a single form, she assumed many formed Saptamatruka. By filling all the desires of the devotees, she came to be called istartha pratayini and the goddess with unlimited powers born in the minds of people of various places, languages, religious is here in all resplendence.

The characteristics of this temple

Saptamatruka temple is the first of its kind in Mysore, is situated in the northwest, and built in accordance with agamasastras, excellence of place. The place is of istanya dikplava nairuti elevation, surabhigandhayukta and supadma character. While building this temple, dikparicheda, ursabhayani, vastumandala, amnayajapaya, devanisa etc., all these factors have been taken into consideration. The adhisthana has all the six kinds of khuras.

The head Posture, weapons and vehicles of the saptamatrkas in the sanctum sanctorum are all sculpted according to the agamasastras. Another specialty is that there is sri chakra chidamba meru prastara in one monolithic stone just in front of the devis in the sanctum sanctorum. In front of it, on the right side is Sri Mahaganapati, and on the lefl is Bhyravamurthy and in the north is sukhaduhkha devis.

Specialty of Deviparchayatana

In the portico, towards the northeast of the devis there is Dakshinamurthy deity racing South; in the southeast Satyanarayana deity is installed facing north, in accordance with the saying Sivaya Visnurupaya Sivarupaya visnave; in the south-west vinayaka deity is installed; and Surya in northwest. The fillet of the sanctum sanctorum is decorated with gaialakshmi, posts and leaves, alligator-banner.

In the ceiling other portico there are three fully blown lotuses. At the front gate there ale lions on either side, and doorkeeper’s viz., dhater and vidhatr are sculpted. In front of them there is a flagstaff measuring 3 I feet made of stone and a balipitha. There is one Mahadwara in front of it. This is a centre for religious, cultural and arts. The deities inside the prakara. On the upper side of the southern wall of the sanctum sanctorum, Brahma, Saraswati, narmada and tumburu are sculpted. Facing them are Jagadguru Adisankara, along with his four disciples; below that are nine durgas sculpted in accordance with the agamas.

On the western wall of the sanctum sanctorum are sculptured Kalpaurksha and Kamadhenu on the left are Sivaloka, Siva and Parvati., Kumaraswamy and Ganapati; on the right are the figures of Ganga and Yamuna rivers flowing from Kailasa; animals and birds devoid of their rivalry, living together in a rivers of penance. At the bottom is the picture of sixteen matricas. The famous idols or devi temples of India are installed here. On the northern wall Mahavisnu and Mahalakshmi are sitting on the Adisesa the couch and canopy of Visnu. On one side of them is Garuda, and on the other side is viswaksena. At the bottom Ashtalaksmis are sculpted.

Spire (Vimana) of the temple

In the temple of Saptamatrkas, Aksara devataas are represented from Akara to Ksakara. This is a unique feature in India-Each of the Aksara devataas have been depicted according to the dhyanasloka of the Agamas. Below the Mahanasika Alpanasika, towards the East is Ganapati, towards the South is Saraswati, towards the West Sri Chowdeshwari and towards the North Mahalakshmi idols are situated. Pranava ksara devataas are there next to Ganapati, and the idols or Mahakarikamba in the northeast, Sri Gayatridevi in the southeast, Sri Savithridevi in the southwest, Sri Saraswathidevi in the northwest, and the conventional vimana deities are also sculpted.

Devakosthakas on the ceiling of the portico: on the east are Ganapati, Saptamatrkas and Virabhadra, on the South are Parvati, Parameswara, Sanmukha, Nandishwara, and on the south are Lakshminarayana, Garud and Anjaneya.

At the four corners of the portico are sculpted Karnakutas, crore bhutas etc. Chejjas called Chadyas are built around the area enclosed round the temple. The temple is truly a heaven on earth. Subbarao Kallesh Bhaskar of Mysore, prepared the blue print of the temple and executed all the engineering works with extreme devotion. Prof. N. Nanjundaswamy, Archaeological Survey of India, Epigraphist has designed the temple in accordance with silpasastra and executed the work excellently.

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