The story of sacred grass (Durva)

According to Ganesh Purana, the following story is stated to highlight the mahima (greatness) of Durva (Sacred Grass). And its importance in Ganesh worship.

Once Yama Dharmaraja was seating on his throne in his court, he was surrounded by his kingsmen, rishis, devas and munis. Celestial damsels like Tilottama were dancing in the court. Looking at Tilottama’s beauty, Yama got attracted to her. In order to control his emotion, he moved out of the court and ran towards the exit. However in the process his semen fall on the ground. From that semen rose a demon named as Analasur. Analasur was very ferocious. His eyes were so red that they appeared to be emitting fire. He had huge teeth, a body was red in color and smell that of a fire. He made life of one and all miserable. Hence rishis, munis, devas and others approached Lord Narayana for annihilating the demon. Lord Narayana advised them to pray to Lord Ganesha as he was the fittest person for this job. 

All the Gods invoked Lord Ganesha to help defeat Analasur. A fight ensued between Analasur and Lord Ganesha in which Lord devoured demon. However it created a terrific burning sensation in the stomach of Lord Ganesha. This sensation could not be mitigated by any means. The devas, rishis and munis tried to cure with various remedies without any result. Finally a sage suggested that they cover the Lord Ganesha with the sacred grass. All the people gathered around made bundles of 21 durvas, invoked mantras and covered Lord Ganesha. This relieved the burning sensation of the Lord. 

Lord Ganesha stated that henceforth he will be satisfied and will grant required boons to anyone who worships him with 21 durvas. The stock of this durva may contain 3 or 5 blades. 

There are number of stories that illustrate how people got benefited by offering durvas to Lord Ganesha. As one story goes, there was a king in Avanti who was just, noble, benevolent with a great respect for brahmins, sages and scholars. He honored them when they visited his court. Once a brahmin came to court wearing only loincloth. He came for alms, gifts and to prove his knowledge and intelligence. On seeing his condition the king felt sorry, but without his own knowledge, he smiled. The brahmin felt that he was insulted for his poor condition and in an anger cursed the king that he would become a bull. Further he stated that he will slog all day and eat only grass. The queen felt that the brahmin has cursed her husband for no fault of him. She in turn cursed the brahmin that he will become a donkey and carry out his duty with washer-man. Again the brahmin got wild and cursed the queen that she will earn her living by selling grass. Eventually they all took birth according to the curses. Queen born again and eventually started selling grass. King born as a bull and brahmin born as a donkey. In course of time, during a storm, by effect of previous karma and by coincidence all three of them took shelter in one Ganesha temple on a chaturthi day. The bull and the donkey grabbed a bunch of grass as they were without food for whole day. The lady was also without food for the whole day and she was tired. She tried to drive the animals and in the process all three of them ran around idol of Lord Ganesh. A bunch of grass from the mouth of bull and the donkey fell on the Ganesh idol. The people gathered in the temple drove away all the three outside into the storm. They died outside the temple. When the people came out of the temple, they found that all three of them were carried in the celestial car to the heaven. The angels who were carrying them told people around that they are being carried to heaven under the order of Lord Ganesha as he was pleased by their worship on chaturthi day by observing a fast and offering durva without their knowledge. 

Pancha Bhoota Sthalams

The five basic elements in nature are - Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Aakash (Space). Pancha Bhoota Sthalams refer to the five Shiva temples each of which represents the manifestation of each of the above five elements. All these temples are located in South India – 4 in Tamil Nadu and 1 in Andhra Pradesh. It is believed that above 5 elements are enshrined in the Shiva Lingas at these temples. The following chart refers to these five Stalams

Elements	Shiva Linga	Temple	Name of Consort (Devi) of Shiva	Location
Earth	Prithvi Lingam	Ekambareshwar	Kamakshi	Kanchipuram, TN
Water	Appu (Jambu) Lingam	Jambukeshwar	Akhilandeshwari	Thiruvanaikaval (near Trichi), TN
Fire	Agni Lingam	Arunachaleshwar	Unnamalai Devi	Thiruvannamalai, TN
Air	Vaayu Lingam	Srikalahasteeshwar	Jananaprasannamba	Srikalahastee, (near Tirupati), AP
Space	Aakash Lingam	Thillainataraja	Sivakami	Chidambaram, TN

Thiruvannamalai

It is one of the Pancha Bhoota Sthalams representing fire element (Agni). It is believed that Lord Shiva appeared as column of Fire whose ends could not be gauged by Lord Vishnu and Lord Bramha. On the request of Lords Bramha and Vishnu, the column of Fire became a Hill. The Hill itself is considered as Lord Shiva. Since Shiva manifested in a column of Fire at this place, it is known as Arunachalam and hence the Lingam is known as “Agni Lingam”.

Kanchipuram

It is one of the Pancha Bhoota Sthalams representing Earth element (Prithvi). The temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva (Ekambareshwar). According to Puranas, Parvati worshiped Shiva in the form of Lingam made of sand (known as Prithvi Lingam) under a mango tree. According to another Sthala Puran, Prithvi Lingam is located at Thiruvarur, TN.

Thiruvanaikaval

It is one of the Pancha Bhoota Sthalams representing the water element (Jala).  The name of this Lingam is Jambookeshwarar. The sanctum of Jambookeshwarar has an underground water spring. Parvati was directed by Lord Shiva to do penance for her misconduct. As per his directions, she found Jamboo forest (Thiruvanaikaval) and made a Lingam of water from the river Kaveri under a white jamboo tree. This place is located near Trichi.

Srikalahastee

It is one of the Pancha Bhoota Sthalams representing air element (Vaayu). This place is named after 3 staunch devotees of Shiva namely the spider (Sri), the serpent (Kala) and the elephant (Hasti). Pleased by their devotion Lord Shiva gave them the boon that their names will be merged with the Vaayu Linga and it will be called as Srikalahasteeswara. There are several legends connected with the glory of this temple. This kshetra is reputed to be Raahu-Ketu kshetra where people perform rituals to get rid of Raahu-Ketu dosh and Sarpa dosh.

Chidambaram

Shiva temple at Chidambaram represents the space element (Akash). In the Shiva puran this place is referred as the place where Lord Shiva strolled into Thillaivanam (spacey of Mangrove trees). He was followed by Lord Vishnu as Mohini. The rishis who were performing Tapas in this forest were disturbed by presence of Mohini and Lord Shiva. They tried to drive away Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu by their magical rituals and failed in their attempts. Then Lord Shiva with gentle smile and a serpent around his neck performed Aanand Tandava on the body of the demon (apasmara) under his foot. Hence deity is known as Thillainatarajan.

Paadal Petra Sthalam

In previous article - Nayanmars, we mentioned about Paadal Petra Sthalam where Nayanmars sang hymns praising Lord Shiva. These are 275 Shiva temples which were revered by Nayanmars in their hymns (sacred songs). These temples are considered to be among the greatest Shiva temples in the country. They, Nayanmars, had sung the sacred hymns in these temples during 6th and 9th century. The complete list of temples can be found with their location in WikiPedia. A short summary of all these is as follows

1. Temples in North of river Kaveri – This area is known as Cholanadu. There are 63 temples in this region. The districts of Chidambaram, Sirkazi, Mayiladurai; Vaitheeswaran Kovil, Kumbhakonam, Thanjavur, Trichi
2. South of river Kaveri – This area is known as Cholanadu. There are 128 temples in this region. It includes Trichi, Thanjavur, Kumbhakonam, Mayiladurai; Vaitheeswaran Kovil, Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam.
3. Eezanadu – This is the current Srilanka. There are 2 temples in this region 
4. Pandya Nadu – This region is around Madurai. There are 14 temples in this region. This includes Madurai, Rameshwarm, Karaikudi, Thirunelveli, 
5. Malai Nadu (Hilly Terrain) – There is only 1 temple at Kodungkolur
6. Kongu Nadu – There are 76 temples in this region. This area also includes Erode, Karur
7. Nadu (middle region) Nadu – There are 22 temples here. They include the regions Virudachalam, Cuddlore, Panruti, Ulundurpet, Vizupuram, Thiruvanamalai
8. Tondai Nadu – There are 32 temples in this region. They include Kanchipuram, Velore, Chennai, Thiruvallur, Chengalpet, Kalahasti (Andhra Pradesh), Tindivanam
9. Tulu Nadu – This is the present day Gokarna in Karnataka. The temple is known as Gokarna Mahabaleshwar. 
10. Vada (North) Nadu – This covers all area north of Tamilnadu. There are 5 temples in this region. They are at Shri Shailam (Andhra Pradesh), Badrinath, Gauri kund, Mount Kailash

Nayanmars

During the period 5th and 10th century there lived a number of saintly devotees. They were staunch devotees of Lord Shiva. They were responsible to a large extent in spreading the Shaivism in South India (especially in TamilNadu). They were 63 in numbers and together they are known as Nayanmars. They hailed from almost all walks of life. Some of them were kings, farmers and so on. Some of them were bramhacharis, grahasthis, sanyasis and so on. In them also included some females. Besides these, wives of Nayanmars were also equally devoted to Lord Shiva. Some of the Nayanmars were highly learned scholars whereas some of them had not learnt any scripture and some of them were illiterate. They excelled in their poetic skills due to the grace of Lord Shiva. They sang a number of sacred hymns but all of them were devoted to Lord Shiva in their own way. They followed their routine service, profession but had a lot of time for their devotion to Lord Shiva. They visited number of temples and sang hymns in praise of Lord Shiva. The places where they sang hymns are 275 in numbers and are known as Paadal Petra Sthalam.

The volumes of Tamil Saiva hymns sung by them are known as Tirumurai. In almost all these 275 Shiva temples and some other famous temples we find the idols of these 63 Naynmars. There we also come across, along with their idols, the Tamil month and Nakshatra in which they were born. During the festivals in most of the temples the idols of Nayanmars are also taken in procession along with idols of Shiva, Parvati, Ganapati and Skanda. 

The life story of all Nayanmars can be found in Periya Puranam.

The names of Nayanmars and other relevant details can be found in Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayanars

Santhana Kuravars

The Kuravars may mean Gurus. Those who were cause of spreading the Shaiva Sidhanta were called as Shaiva Gurus (Kuravars). The Shaiva philosophy was given to the world by Santhana Kuravars. It is believed that this philosophy was given by Lord Shiva himself in his Dakshinamurty form. The Santhana Kuravars were classified in 2 categories, namely –

1) Agama Santhana Kuravars – They were 4 and they were not considered as normal human beings and are believed to be residing in Mount Kailash. They are as follows

a.       Thiru (Shri) Nandidev

b.       Shri Sanatakumara

c.       Satya-gyana-darshi

d.       Sage Paranjyoti

It is believed that the Guru-Shishya parampara started from Dakshinamurty and passed on in the order stated above.

2) Pura Santhana Kuravars – The job of spreading Shaiva Sidhanta was carried forward from Sage Paranjyoti by the following 4 kuruwars. They are namely

a.       Meykandar

b.       Arul Nandi Shivam

c.       Maraigyana Sambandhar

d.       Umapathi Shivachariyar

They resided in Tamilnadu and were responsible for spreading the Shaiva Sidhanta. Their disciples carried forward the tradition and established Mathas at Thiruvadurai and Dharmapuram. These 2 Mathas are known as Kailash parampara, as the tradition starts from Lord Dakshinamurty.

The 4 great saints who carried forward the parampara in 7^th & 12^th century are known as Samayshaivakuravars. They are also known as Nalwar. They are namely –

• Thirugyana Sambandhar
• Thirunavukkarasar
• Sundara Murty Nayanar
• Manikka vachakar

During 4^th, 5^th & 6^th century Budhism and Jainism were spreading very fast in south India and many rulers got converted. During this period the religious activity almost dwindled and came to a stop. But from 7^th & 12^th century due to the great effort of these 4, Shaiva Sidhanta attained glory again and many of the rulers came back into Shaiva Sidhanta.

Thevaram (Garland of divine songs / hymns) was sung in praise of Lord Shiva. The first 3 are considered foremost among the 63 Nayanmars. The Manikka vachakar composed verses known as Thiruvasagam.

Thiruvasagam – There are 12 volumes of hymns (sacred songs) sung by the Nayanmars in praise of Lord Shiva. These were sung in 275 Shaiva Sthalams. They are collectively known as Thirumurai.

The twelve volumes of Tamil Śaiva hymns of the sixty-three Nayanars
Parts	Name	Author
1,2,3	Tirukadaikkappu	Sambandar
4,5,6	Tevaram	Tirunavukkarasar
7	Tirupaatu	Sundarar
8	Tiruvacakam and Tirukkovaiyar	Manikkavacakar
9	Tiruvisaippa and Tiruppallaandu	Various
10	Tirumandhiram	Tirumular
11	Various
12	Periya Puranam	Sekkizhar