Thediyur : Ther - Thagaiyur
Just 1.5 kilometres to the south east of Kunthaloor one of the important Vathima Villages, TETHIYUR is placed. A village nearer to a semi-urban locality in the Kumbakonam-Poonthottam segment of the Kumbakonam to Mayavaram (Mayiladuthurai) road. It is 22 kms from Kumbakonam and 28 kms from Mayavaram. One could reach Tedhiyur from Kumbakonam and Mayavaram. All the buses between Kumbakonam and Mayavaram via Poonthottam will go via Tedhiyur. The village had 120 families in 1970's. Now there are only 10 families.
Population and Demographic Features:
Thethiyur is small village located in Kodavasal Taluka of Thiruvarur district, Tamil Nadu with total 575 families residing. The Thethiyur village has population of 2247 of which 1128 are males while 1119 are females as per Population Census 2011.
In Thethiyur village population of children with age 0-6 is 256 which makes up 11.39 % of total population of village. Average Sex Ratio of Thethiyur village is 992 which is lower than Tamil Nadu state average of 996. Child Sex Ratio for the Thethiyur as per census is 803, lower than Tamil Nadu average 943. The village consisted of 120 families in 1970's and now there are only 10 families from Vathima Community.
Story behind the Name:
The original name comes from the history of ramayana. The story of abduction of Sri Seetha Devi by Ravana is known to all. On the way Ravana had to meet the challenge of Jadayu to proceed further. Jadayu engages Ravana in fight and Ravana escapes after inflicting injury on Jadayu. Thethiyur means, it is reported, "Ravananin Therai Thagaitha OOR".
A Brief Description:
The village has 3 streets : Mela agraharam, nadu agraharam and keezha agraharam. It has two Sivan temples (Periya Kovil and Meenakshi Amman Kovil) and two Perumal temples (Karia Manickavasagar Perumal and Varadharaja Perumal) and 2 Vinayagar Temples (vellalar street pillayar and varasiddhi vinayar kovil). The presiding deity is called 'Prathyaksha Parameswarar'.
The reason for the two set of temples is, initially when people migrated to Tethiyur from Kunthaloor, they lived in the interior part of Tethiyur where paddy lands are spread over an area. The temples situated in that place is Periyava Koil, Karia Manicka Perumal Koil and a Pillaiyar Koil.
It is seen that some time later the people moved to the present Agraharams. The Temples here are Meenakshi Amman Temple, Varadharaja Perumal Temple and Varasidhi Vinayagar Temple.
View of Agraharam
In this varasiddhi vinayakar temple if you note, the vahanam for vinayaka will be Nandhi instead of Mouse! (Pic below – Varasiddhi vinayakar temple)
Meenakshi Amman temple (Entrance to Ambal Sannidhi – South gate)
Main Vimanam
Main vimanam above Sundareswarar
Vimanam above Subrahmanya Swami Sannidhi
Vimanam above Nataraja Sannidhi
Vimanam above Meenakshi amman
There is another temple near the Arasalaru. It is also a Sivan Koil and fondly known as Aathangarai Koil.
There are other temples - AyyanAr temple (at the outer limits of the village. That place is called "manavAlanallur"), mAriyamman temple, selliamman temple (near the agricultural lands, who is none other than chAmundi, a form of goddess Durga who killed chanda mundAsuras and is belived to protect the farms). These deities who are placed at the outer limits are believed to guard the village. They are also called as kAval deivam or the protecting God.
In Manavalanallur there is a sivan temple, where it is believed that lord Shiva and goddess parvati has shown their marriage celebration (thiru mana kolam as in tiruveezhimizhalai) to a saint who was unable to pursue his journey to tiruveezhimizhalai for seeing the tirukkalyanakolam of the lord.
Functions and other Celebrations:
Kaalashtami:
The famous function in this village is, Kaalashtami, that is Kaala Bhairavashtami. It is celebrated in month of Karthigai every year. The ashtami thidhi after the full moon day is known as Kaalashtami. All Athreya gothra families, in particular participate in this function. Homam,abishekam with Pallyam to Kaalabhairava Swamy will be the main event connected with this function which is conducted in the Peria Koil.
Sankara Jayanthi:
Sankara jayanthi, the birth day of Adi sankara is celebrated in this village. Adi sankara sahasranama or ashtotthara satha nama will be read out and pooja will be performed to the portrait of Adi sankara in the Sankara Middle School and it will be taken out for procession along the three streets by young boys
and men, chanting ‘Jaya Jaya Sankara Hara Hara Sankara’. Panagam, Neer mor (butter milk), sundal, will be offered as nivedanam and distributed as prasadam. In earlier days, veda parayanam was organized at Sri Vanchi Iyer’s house. Early morning Margazhi Bhajans are conducted, cultivating the namasangeerthanam in the young minds and children join the procession with enthusiasm.
Personalities:
1. Brahmmasri Subramaniya sasthrigal is from thedhiyur. You can view more details about the mahan by clicking this link : http://thethiyursastrigal.blogspot.in/
2. Sri Vanchi Iyer who built Sankara Middle school in the village. He was closely associated to Kanchi Paramacharya Sri Chandra sekara saraswathi. Maha periyava’s vastram – kashaayam was prepared by this noble man and offered to His Holiness every year. It was a privilege that those vastrams were dried in vanchi iyer’s home before given to the mutt.
a) Vanchi Iyer used to cut tender coconut using arrival. Using the tender coconut water the kaashaayam soaking process is done on the vastram. During maha periyava’s birthday, the vastrams are offered to His holiness. Once, Sri Vanchi Iyer cut his hands while doing so. So he didn’t go to the mutt for offering that year and sent his elder son sri. Pichumani. Periyava didn’t ask anything to the son but accepted the offering. Next time when Vanchi Iyer went to the mutt, Sri Periyava enquired – “Kai romba valichutho?” as the first question. Everyone standing there who knew about this incident were stunned.
b) There was an ayurvedic expert from Ananthampuliyur who use to tell recepie for preparing a lehiyam for periyava to overcome his bodily illness. The same lehiyam is also prepared at Vanchi iyer’s house by his daughters in law in an orthodox way.
c) Also Vanchi iyer managed the sankara school. He use to come every month to tedhiyur from kanchi mutt at kanchipuram for issuing salary to the staffs. If he forgets to start at month end, paramacharya himself use to remind him, “vanchi, maasa kadasi aagiruthu. Nee oorukku poi school velai yellam gavanichuttu thirumbi va”. Then Vanchi iyer ue to start from the mutt.
Sri Sankara Middle School is providing formal education upto Middle level. This is in the East Agraharam opposite to Sri Meenakshi Amman temple. This school was started in 1936 by Sri V.Vanchi Iyer.
This school is famous for its Drama, that will be hosted on the school’s Annual day every year. Also, the Kanchi Acharyas (paramacharya, Jayendra saraswathi and vijayendra saraswathi) had graced this school by making this as a place of stay and for Chandra mouleeswara pooja, every time they visited this village.
Bharaneetharan of Ananda Vikatan wrote about Thedhiyur and its temples long ago. He however forgot to write about Pillayar temple there. After receiving a letter from one of the person associated with the village, he published the same in the next issue. Then when he visited Kunthaloor after some time, he made a visit to Tedhiyur and visited the varasiddhi vinayakar temple along with the man behind the school Sri V.Vanchi Iyer. Bharaneetharan collected data about the temple and published it in the next issue in Ananda Vikatan. Bharaneetharan wrote that he considered the school as another temple in the village.
தேதியூர்:
கும்பகோணத்திலிருந்து பூந்தோட்டம் செல்லும் பாதையில் கூந்தலூருக்கு இரண்டு கி.மீட்டர் தொலைவில் உள்ளது. இவ்வூருக்குத் தெற்கே திருமலை ராஜன் ஆறும் வடக்கே அரசலாறும் உள்ளன. ராவணன் சீதையை அபகரித்துச் செல்கையில் ஜடாயு இந்த இடத்தில்தான் அவனை எதிர்க்கிறார். நடந்த யுத்தத்தில் ஜடாயு படுகாயம் அடைகிறார். ராவணன் தேரைத் தகைத்ததால் தேர்தகையூர் என்று பெயர் பெற்று பிறகு தேதியூர் ஆனது. ஒருகாலத்தில் மூன்று அக்ரஹாரங்களில் 100 வீடுகள் இருந்தன.சுந்தர கனகாம்பிகா சமேத பிரத்யக்ஷ பரமேஸ்வரர் கோவிலும், மீனாக்ஷிசுந்தரேஸ்வரர் கோவிலும், கரிய மாணிக்க வாசக பெருமாள், வரதராஜ பெருமாள் என்ற இரண்டு பெருமாள் கோவில்களும் உள்ளன. இரண்டு விநாயகர் கோவில்களும் உள்ளன. மிகவும் விஷேசமான காலபைரவர் கோவிலும் உள்ளது. சங்கரா நடுநிலைப்பள்ளி புகழ் பெற்றது.
Courtesy:
English Version:
Sri Krishnamurthy Kalyanaraman, Retd Professor, University of Kerala, is an erudite scholar hailing from Konerirajapuram
Tamil Version :
Compilation by - Smt. Malathi Jayaramani, Kumbakonam
Source:
மாத்யம தர்ம சமாஜ்
பேராசிரியர் திரு கிருஷ்ணமூர்த்தி கல்யாணராமன், கோனேரிராஜபுரம்