Patteswaram Temple
December 7, 2006
This temple has been a real favorite of mine going back to my first visit there almost 10 years ago. It is a Shiva/Durga temple that is very old, and yet well maintained compared to most. The Shiva temple is modest in size and has an amazing feel of antiquity. The lingam is not all that large but there is an unmistakably spiritual feel that comes from so many hundreds (or thousands) of years of daily pujas.
During my last visit to India for Navaratri I visited again with Seetharam and the temple had changed a lot. The renovations that were just beginning during my first visit had been completed and featured a new enclosed area around the Durga temple.
When we visited the temple, Seetharam told a funny story about a saint who visited the temple many hundreds of years ago. His name was Sambandar and although he was a great devotee of Shiva, he was denied denied entry to the temple by the priests. So he said okay, and stood behind the Nandi (Shiva’s Bull). But Shiva wanted to see his devotee clearly and asked Nandi to move aside a bit. And indeed, at the temple the Nandi is off-center (which is pretty good for a stone statue, but sorts of things are fairly common with Nandi).
Additionally, it is said that Rama came here to do penance and ask Shiva for fogiveness after killing Valli in the Ramayana. Also it is said that the calf of Kamadhenu came here to worship Shiva. Kamadhenu is the “wish fulfilling cow” from vedic mythology. Obvoiusly the cow is very central to vedic culture and of course the cow is revered even today. In fact it is said that all the gods live on Kamadhenu!
And the story of how the calf of Vasistha was almost stolen by Vishwamitra plays an important (if somewhat convoluted) role in the the development of Vishwamitra to the status of Brahmarishi and how he became the seer of the Gayatri mantra and one of the books of the Rig Veda.
Mostly as you stand in the courtyard of this temple you sense the spiritual history and there is some feeling that at least at some time in the past, this was a place of genuine spirituality and enlightenment.