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| Nedumpura Shiva Temple - East Entrance Gopuram |
What a long episode the world has been through! Man tried to exploit nature with his arrogance, ego, pride, greed and what not! Nature simply smiled. An invisible form emerged from it and in no time made the man go on his knees. Crores suffered, lakhs died and the world crippled like never before. Nature yet again teaches the man how trivial he is compared to its colossal power.
If this is one form of nature which the world endure, we do have the other form, which is on the other extreme. Caring, compassionate and one which conspires and guides the sincere seekers to pure bliss! And as we restarted our broken expeditions, the first since the world flipped, to the 108 abodes of Lord Shiva, our first prayers was to Mother Nature - "We pray Mother - Protect us! Guide us! And take us to what is to be known to transcend this material world!"
Thus in the comfort of our prayers blessed by early morning showers we took our ride to Sree Kulasekaranallur Shiva temple, Nedumpura. To start with, we got very limited written material on the temple or the place. Once again, the book “108 Sivakshetrangal” by Sri.Kunjikuttan Ilayath became our first guide.
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| Nedumpura Village View |
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| East Gopuram - another view |
The moment we arrived, we felt the vibes of what we are going to experience. A double-storied, age-old, red-brick gopuram greeted us to the temple from the east. A rich green pond just outside the gopuram on the north-east side echoed the class of the place. As we enter the gopuram, the naalambalam is seen which looks as old as the gopuram. The valia bali-kallu (principal bali-peeta) is outside the naalambalam. There is a nandi idol in between the entrance and the bali-kallu. A renovation work is going on in the north part of the naalambalam.
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| View from East - with renovation in progress |
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| Peacocks ! |
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| Majestic Sreekovil - Gajaprishta architecture |
“Here is another interesting matter about this temple. Till few decades back there was one unique ritual which was conducted here, known as Jayaa Bali. Though there are few other temples which conduct this, in this temple it used to be conducted in a very elaborate form”.
“Why it was stopped? Why it is not continued again?” -we asked
“There are several factors. The main reason is the rigorous rituals and discipline to be followed while conducting Jayaa Bali. Though it is tough to explain in entirety, the rituals has to be impeccable and should be performed strictly following the customs and traditions. Recently there was a discussion to conduct Jayaa Bali again. But it is these stringent rituals which holds many back. The rituals will start after Athaazha Pooja and will continue till early morning. Till then the entire area should be completely cordoned off. I myself had witnessed one decades back. With no power in those days, we used to burn wood in the surroundings to keep a vigil to ensure nothing gets into the enclosure of the rituals!”
“Another reason is expense. Decades back Jayaa Bali used to be conducted every year. But the land reforms in 1970s resulted in the hardship for the temple. There was a time when for two continuous years the priests in the temple performed the daily rituals without taking anything in return. And in some occasions they even had to bring the materials for daily nivedya from their house. I know those times as one among those priests was my father. Compared to those days, situation is now much better.” - Vasudevan Namboothiri concluded.
The drizzle had stopped. Our return journey was inevitable. And as we slowly took our road back to our ordeal, the peacocks on those trees were seen rejoicing in the eternal bliss and companionship of the Lord within – Om Namah Sivayah !
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