Sree Sengazhuneer Amman Temple – Puducherry
Sree Sengazhuneer Amman Temple is located at Veerampattinam of Puducherry in India.
She is an incarnation of Goddess Parvati and her idol
is made of Devadharu Wood.
The temple is built with
Mandapam, Rajagopuram, Dwajasthambam, and the hall outside the temple. The idol of
Ambica is made of Devadharu wood. The presiding deity faces the sea while the other
seven deities face the North. The temple also houses Lord Shiva, Ganapathy, and
Murugan in the temple premises.
Veerampattinam is a fishing
village and a man named Veeraraghavan was living there in an ancient time. One
fine morning, he set out for fishing in a nearby rivulet. He had no catch till
sunset and was totally disappointed but didn’t give up and made a final attempt
before returning home. When withdrawing the net, he was very happy as he felt a
heavy resistance, usually due to a big catch. But he was disappointed eventually as
there was no fish instead it was a big piece of wood. He took it home and kept
it in the backyard. One day his wife found no firewood for cooking and decided
to cut the wood to make it useful. When she hit the wood with an axe, it was
shocking and she couldn’t believe it as blood was oozing out from the axe cut.
She immediately informed her husband and the villagers. Astonished
Veeraraghavan kept the wood inside his home and started performing pooja. He
was very happy and life became prosperous for him. After some days, Amman (Lady
God) appeared in Veeraraghavan’s dream and told him that he got the wood
because of his blessings. She asked him to use the wood as Peeta (Base) and to
install her idol on the base at a specific location in the village.
She asked him to worship the
idol of "Sengazhuneer Amman" before disappearing from his dream.
Veeraraghavan informed the villagers about his dream. All the villagers set out
to find the place indicated by Amman. They found an ant hill from where a
serpent (cobra) came out and beat the ground thrice with its hood, thus showing
them the place where they had to establish the idol. The wood was brought for
setting the Peeta and made a granite idol of Sengazhuneer Amman's head. The
temple was gradually developed stage by stage from a small hut to a huge temple
over the centuries. A temple car was made centuries ago and it was the first
temple in the province of Puducherry to have a temple car.
It has been customary since the time of the French
occupation to invite the lieutenant governor of Puducherry to celebrate the
festival and begin the Temple car procession by pulling its enormous rope.
'Muthu Pallakku' festival, which marks the conclusion of the six-week festival,
will be celebrated on the last Friday.
For the fifth and sixth Fridays, more than 100,000 to
200,000 people will congregate from various regions, including Puducherry and
Tamil Nadu. The village residents come together to plan and organize the
festival to make it more joyous.
Other festivals including Masi Magam, Mattu Pongal,
Kavadi, Vinayaka Chaturthi, Ammbu vizha (Vijayadashami), and Thirukaarthigai
(Sokka Paanai) were also celebrated on different occasions.
Timings
6.00 am to 11.00 am
4.00 pm to 9.00 pm
How to reach the Temple
8 km from Puducherry
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