ATHI VARADAR TEMPLE
For the past 48 days, a big festival was been conducted in the Athi Varadar temple, kanchipuram. People from various places have visited the temple for past 48 days and got the blessings from the God. This temple was known to be first built in 1053 AD by the great chola rulers and being maintained till now.
Athi Varadar was 9 feet statue. Vishwakarma is the one who carved the statue using Fig Tree(athi maram). So that only this god was named Athi Varadar. Athi Varadar was immersed inside the Pushkaranai (Anantha Saras kulam) in the temple. It was known that water level in the Anantha Saras kulam have not decreased till now. The last time this festival was conducted in 1979 and before that, 1939. This time it started in 1st July and ended in 17th August. They made various arrangements for the devotees like providing drinking water, annadanam, etc.
History
Athi Varadar history is all about an incident faced by the brahma. Brahma had two wife one is Saraswathi and the other is Gayatri. One day, they want to know who is elder between both. Then Brahma said that Gayatri is elder. Saraswathi got anger and she goes away. And she also take his wand from him. Brahma praised the god to retrieve the wand from her. Then he was asked to do 1000 Aswamedha yagna. And he comes to known that doing one thing in the Kanchipuram benefits 1000 times. So, Brahma decided to do the yagna with Gayatri in the Athigiri malai. Then he started the yagna there. During the yagna Saraswathi ran as the Vegavathi river, for disturbing the yagna.
But the Lord Vishnu stopped the flow of the Vegavathi river. And then Vishnu emerged in the fire of the yagna as Athi Varadar and the yagna continued. As the Vishnu came of the holy fire, he can't resist the heat, so that he asked to keep under the water to bare the heat. And then they took the statue made of athi tree once in 60 years for the worship.
And then they decided to take the statue of Vishnu once in 40 years because they want the people to see the Athi Varadar at-least once in their life span. And the Athi Varadar give darshan for the 48 days. Then for then first 24 days he was in the Sayana kolam (lying down position) and for the last 24 days in the nindra kolam (standing position). After the 48 days, he was again immersed in the water. Then, after this will have to wait for forty years in order to get his darshan.
Reason for the Athi Varadar kept under water
Athi Varadar statue was damaged due to the fire sparkles during the yagna. It was found that damaged idol of the Athi Varadar should not be kept in temple. So that, it was to be replaced by other idol. So that Athi Varadar idol was kept in the Anantha Saras kulam. When the foreigner ruled our country, they stole the various ornaments from the temple by damaging the statue. In order to safeguard the statue from the foreigner they kept the idol under the water.
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