Temples
Most temples to Mariamman are simple village shrines, where non-Brahmins act as lay-priests using non-agamic rituals. In many rural shrines, the goddess is represented by a granite stone with a sharp tip, like a spear head. This stone is often adorned with garlands made of limes and with red flowers. These shrines often have an anthill that could be the resting place of a cobra. Milk and eggs are offered to propitiate the snake.
Some temples have also attained enough popularity that Brahmins officiate at them. For example, the Samayapuram temple near the shore of river Cauvery in the northern outskirts of Trichy, maintains a rich agamic tradition and all rituals are performed by Gurukkal of Brahmins.
Punainallur, near Thanjavur (Tanjore), is the location of another famous Māri temple. Legend says that Mariamman appeared to the King Venkoji Maharaja Chatrapati (1676–1688) of Tanjore in his dreams and told him she was in a forest of Punna trees three miles distant from Tanjore. The King rushed to the spot and recovered an idol from the jungle. Under the king's orders a temple was constructed, the idol installed and the place was called Punnainallur. Hence the deity of this temple is known as Punnainallur Mariamman. Mud replicas of different parts of the human body are placed in the temple as offerings by devotees pleading for cure. It is said that the daughter of Tulaja Raja (1729–35) of Tanjore, who lost her eyesight due to illness, regained it after worshiping at this temple.
Erode Mariamman temple festival is grand one in Tamilnadu. Three mariamman goddess named small, mid and big mariamman in three corners of city combines to a festival at every April month of season. It has ther thiruvilla and all devotions to God which ends in Cauvery river to stack away the kambam(Mariamman's husband) into the flowing river water.
Other important temples of Mariamman in Tamil Nadu are in the towns of Veerapandi, Theni, Anbil (near Trichy), Narthamalai, Thiruverkadu, Salem, Virudhunagar and Sivakasi, Vellore. In Chennai (Madras), a famous Mariamman temple is the Putthu Mariamman—the Putthu (ant hill) is across the road from the temple and is located on the Velachery Main Road.
Another famous Mariamman temple is situated in the state of Karnataka, in the town of Kaup, seven kilometers from the famous temple town of Udipi.
- Marubai temple matunga
- Mariamman Koil, Pilakool
- Mariamman Temple, Ho Chi Minh City
- Mariamman Temple, Bangkok
- Mariamman temple no 4 veerapandi
- Mariamman Temple, Pretoria
- Punnainallur Mariamman
- Samayapuram Mariamman Temple
- Sri Ramamirthamman Temple, Erumaipadukai
- Sri Mahamariamman Temple, Kuala Lumpur
- Sri Mahamariamman Temple, Penang
- Sri Mariamman Temple, Singapore
- Mariamman Temple, Pretoria
- Sri Mahamariamman Tempel, Sulzbach, Altenwald (Germany)
- Sri Mariamman temple, Brazil
- The New York Mari-Amman Koil (Tamilian descendants from Guyana)
- Thali Sree Renuka Mariamman Kovil, http://renukamariamman.org
Read more about this topic: Amman (goddess)
Famous quotes containing the word temples:
“Goddesses never die. They slip in and out of the world’s cities, in and out of our dreams, century after century, answering to different names, dressed differently, perhaps even disguised, perhaps idle and unemployed, their official altars abandoned, their temples feared or simply forgotten.”
—Phyllis Chesler (b. 1941)
“These temples grew as grows the grass;
Art might obey, but not surpass.
The passive Master lent his hand
To the vast soul that o’er him planned.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
““To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds
For the ashes of his fathers
And the temples of his gods,”
—Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859)