Karuvazhakarai Kamakshi Amman temple Visit

Karuvazhakarai Kamakshi

Collage of the temple

My mom is big fan of visiting temples.She never fails to buy her precious tamil dailies which reports on the various temples. This particular trip was long due.This temple is my husbands Kula Deivam. My mom always says " Kula Deivathai Kondadanum". True to this spirit we undertook this trip when Sakti Vikatan announced that the temple is conducting Kumbahishegam on the 10th Nov 2008. We could not go to the Kumbabhishegam but we attended the mandala abhishegam on the 16th Nov 2008.My mom says that one has to visit the temple within 45 days of rejuvenating it. We started from chennai at 4.00 am and booked a Qualis A/C from Venkatesh Tours and travels Anna Nagar. We took the Chennai-Dindivanam-Pondicherry-Cuddulore-Mayavaram route.The driver was too safe,in the sense that he was deprived of forty winks the previous nite,he kept taking tea breaks.We again stopped at hotel Satabhishegam to refresh on the way to the temple.We reached the temple around 12 in the noon and the gurukal just started with the pooja. The mamis were busy making maa-vilakku.It was such an appetising sight.We witnessed the pooja for one and a half hours. The diety according to the bhaktas is a wish granting goddess.She was apparently found in a pond by three friends all of them who belonged to different communities 600 years ago. They belonged to the Iyer,Iyengar and Pillai communities. Unity in diversity indeed.
 
She is principally a village guardian known as Mariamman,now known as Kamakshi Amman.The Kumbabhishegam was a lavish affair.My mom wants to make another trip after listening to stories about her glory. We finished the worship and headed off for lunch at Kariyakudi.This is the best places to eat at Mayavaram.We had pitlay,takali kai kootu,Neer more etc. The food satiated our appetites.On our way back we visited Chidambaram Natarajar Temple and thillai Kali temple.After our chidambaram visit we stopped for dinner at Sathguru Hotel in Pondicherry. We got back home around 1am the same day.We covered a distance of 585 kms. The minimum outstation charges for 225 kms is Rs10/kms. We paid Rs 6,000 plus taxes.(including night charges,Permit charges).On the whole it was a much anticipated and long delayed trip. Thanx to my moms initiative and constant prodding and of course thanx to the indispensable Sakti Vikatan which sparked of my maiden visit to my husband's kula deivam.My dad took the picture of goddess Kamakshi from Sakti Vikatan from his Sony cybershot W120.The other picture is a collage of Karuvazhaikarai temple pictures.