Sri Moongil Annai Kamakshi Amman Temple

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Overview

Devadanapatti is a Town Panchayat city in district of Theni, Tamil Nadu. The Devadanapatti city is divided into 18 wards for which elections are held every 5 years. The Devadanapatti Town Panchayat has population of 19,285 of which 9,805 are males while 9,480 are females as per report released by Census India 2011. Devadanapatti Town Panchayat has total administration over 5,010 houses to which it supplies basic amenities like water and sewerage. It is also authorize to build roads within Town Panchayat limits and impose taxes on properties coming under its jurisdiction.

About The Temple

The Moongil Anai Kamakshi temple is a shakthi temple located in Devadanapatti, near Pariyakulam in Theni District, Tamilnadu at the at the foot of Kodaikanal Hills.The idol is in the form of door and it is worshipped as goddess Kamakshi. It has different rituals from other temple. Commonly the coconut is broken into two and offered before aarathi. But here the unpeeled bananas and full coconuts are offered and after aarathi it is broken. The lamp in the temple is burning for 500 years to till date. It is lit only with ghee that is offered by the devotees which are stored in uncovered pots placed in a door less storage room. Aroma of the ghee surrounds the entire temple. They remain fresh always and neither has it attracted insects. As per the devotees this is happening because of the blessings of Goddess Kamakshi and also the idols are not inside the sacred sanctums. The temple has no Temple Towers, Doors or Idols.

About the deity

The Main Deity is here the goddess shakthi is called as kamakshi amman.

Legends and Stories

The history for these practices are there was a tiff in between the king and the priest. In order to express his dissatisfaction the priest locked up the temples sanctums door and went home. He dint return back ever after. Hence all the prayers were done for the door and the dome is replaced with the Nana pull which is hay. The temple is maintained by the Raja Kumbalathar Nayakanmar family. A male above 60 years old from the Raja Kumbalathar Nayakanmar family fasts for 40 days and weaves the roof with the materials collected from the forest called Murugamalai. After that he climbs the temples backside with his eyes blind folded and weaves it without seeing it. The women are not allowed till the entire work is finished. After this to the door the abishkam is done, conch is blown and sekandi is beaten. At the end a pin drop silence is maintained because it is believed that the god kamakshi meditates in that evening and she is still alive. The moola sthanan of the temple is Amman Macchu. This is located father to this temple which is near the Manjalaru Dam at the foot of Kodaikana hills. Kamakshi did penance here after stabboing Asura to death who was a demon. She came as a newborn child and placed in the huge chest that was floating in the Manjalaru. This was said to the devotees in their dreams and as per her instruction they gathered in that river and the chest was stopped by the bamboo branches. The devotes understood that this child was mother Kamakshi who was so called Mungil Anai Kamakshi(Bamboo fence Kamakshi). The Karupanna Swamy temple sting in the hill site is the guardian for this temple who is also known as the brother of the goddess Kamakshi. The temple is surrounded by small sanctums with only name plates without idols. There are two stories related to ths temple. Once the mother Kamakshi appeared in the dream of a zamindar and said that the the city will be flooded due to heavy rain and she will come there to save him.

Significance

As per his dream the city was flooded and a bamboo case which came in the flood was stopped bamboos which were grown in the sides of the river. Even in such situation people was worshipping mother Kamakshi. The goddess got impressed by their bakthi and blessed them to continue same kind of worships only with MAAVILAAKKU offerings as maha neivdyam.After a while the Manradiyars (pusaris of Kamakshi) and zamindars of that time quarreled with each other. The angry manradiyars curseded the door of the temple to be closed forever and even now the manradiyars sect do not visit the temple nor they walk in the temples lane.

Festivals

The temple festivals are conducted during Amavasai on Maasi month and procession are also being done from Amman Macchu.

Accessibility

Rail

Theni does not have a train station. The nearest Rail head is at Madurai

Air

Nearest airport is Madurai Airport.

Road

Nearest option is Kodaikanal Road. You can easily get regular buses to Theni from other major cities of the country.