Milk Forest Tamil

What the heck is Milk Forest Tamil ? This was how I was teased by my friend . Transliterating Milk= Pal , Forest = kadu .
I had been to Kerala to attend my ex Roomie's wedding . I was put up in another of my friends house. Now this guy talks a different Tamil . I shdnt call this tamil , infact I should be saying this is Talyalam...no infact it should be malayil ..Whatever we name it , i had one of the tufest time in their house. The last time I have heard abt Palakad Tamil was in MMKR . Now i dont think I shd be expanding this. But these ppl beat the movie hard.
To be frank , my Malayalam is reasonable and my tamil is infact decent( I have started reading Ponniyin Selvan by Kalki)...But these guys were driving me crazy . They were talking in a fashion which neither my Malyalam Parser nor my Tamil Parser could decode. My parser was throwing uncatchable exceptions. Adhu daan ba I wasnt able to understand a bit of their language.Continous context switching and I had to give up .
I had no clue if these ppl were talking malayalam or Tamil ...Finally , Some of the things I have accumulated are
I had always thought Kali was a food item given in Jails , but it referred to games...
Saram was some thing in the house ..but it means a dont care state.
and Raavila meant in nights but this was a turnaround, it actually means in the morning.

I finally took the train thinking why we shdnt have a separate state for these ppl if Indian states are based on languages. Oops...I am adding to more confusion.

Madhu
-kozhandai ( means kutti papa in tamil but is more referred to guys in Palakkad)

Ahobilam Day 1

We had a couple of days of holidays for diwali so we decided some time back to travel to Ahobilam. The schedule was for 3 days (22/10 sun , 23/10 Mon and 24/10 Tues ) . All Set for the travel , I would post the travelogue in abt 4 posts to give a picturesque description of our trip.
The first post would contain a general description covering the details abt the place, how tor each etc . Each forthcoming post woudl contain details on my stay in Ahobilam .

Aho+Balam= Oh What a strength ! is the etymological meaning of the place.
Lord Nrsimha is the presiding deity of the place. This avatara a noteworthy avatara in the dasavatara. This avatara was to show the omni present nature of the divine supreme. This also was to prove that belief and Sharanagathi ( principle doctorine of Sri Vaishanavism) to the supreme would never go astray.

This place is also known as Simham vel kundram which is a then(north) naatu thirapuathi (mangalasasanam by Thirumangai Azhwar).

How to Reach Ahobilam

For detail travel and maps , please mail me or I would plan to put them in the forthcoming post

If you are travelling from Chennai . Cuddapah should be the closest city (abt 400-420 kms frm Chn ) . Cuddapah -> Allagada -> Ahobilam (23 Kms).

For bus bookings try this link Bus tickets and for hotel bookings in Ahobilam you might want to try Hotels

From Hyd :
Take NH7 -
Hyd -> Kurnool -> Take a diversion here -> travel towards Cuddapah ->Nandhyal -> Allagada ->Lower Ahobilam .


Having Reached Ahobilam , You should be prepared to visit all the nine temples spanning lower Ahobilam and Upper Ahobilam .

Lower Ahobilam has

1. Prahlada Nrsmha (Not counted in the 9 )
2. Chatravata
3. Bargava
4. Yogananda

While you travel to upper Ahobilam you will visit

1. Karunja

Remaining 5 ..( note that as already mentioned Prahlada Nrsimhar is not in the nava nrsmhars )

1. Ahobilam
2. Varaha a.k.a Kroda
3. Malola
4. Jwala
5. Pavana
   

Other 2 important places one must not miss is Prahlada Padi and Ugra Stambam.

The point to be noted is each Nrsmha is a Swayambu.
Let me take you an overview of each Nrsmha one by one . How one can reach the stalam ..specialities of the stalam as told by a battar( Mr.Phani Raghava 94417 60871).This would also contain in the order we visited.

1) Prahalada Varadan :
Prahalad Varadan sannidhi is in the lower Ahobilam. As I mentioned before this is not counted in the nava Nrsmha sthalam. Moolavar Prahlad varadan stays with his consort Chenchu lakshmi thayar. This is a small temple. The Lord married Chenchu lakshmi thayar here and hence kalyanotsavam is a very common occurence as it is in Thiruvinnagaram.There is a ahobilam mutt close to this temple and this should be your base.

2) Yogananda Nrsmha :
From 1) this temple is about 1-2 kms . One can walk this distance easily. This is located in a very small hillock very similar to the varadan at Kanchi. Yoganada Nrsmha sanidhi is a small sannidhi and I dont remember having seen a thayar sanidhi . This nrsmha is presiding deity of Lord Shanaicharan ( Shani bhagawan ) . All Shani Doshams would be gone if we pray this lord. The battar was kind enough to open the sannidhi for us alone at 7:00 pm.

3) Chatra Vata Nrsmha :
While on the way back from (2) to (1) we can reach this sannidhi . Amma told me these sanidhi's have been renovated and have got much better than what it was before 7-8 years.
Chatra - Umbrella Vata -tree .As it is clear the nrshma is said to be under a tree which was like an umbrella.
The is a kethu Stalam and Nrsmha is "Sangeetha priyan" meaning he likes his devotees to sing songs to please him which the kuttis did by singing Varaveena ( mohanam) and Shree gananatha (malahari) .
I started my SVS rendition as is my usual practise as it was almot 7:30 then. We came back to our base for our night stay where the battar said we could go to (1) for satrumurai ( a special pooja performed in Sri Vaishnava temples ) .
We rushed and myself , Janesh and Puru anna had the divine blessings to be as a part of the Goshti that night.
The best part of the whole trip was that trip fell on Swathi thirunakshtram . Now Swati is the avatar nakshatram of The Lord. The nava kshetras being in remote locations are all open for this Swathi and thirumanjanams are performed on this day. When we ppl were in the goshti amma, manni had booked for Tirumanjanams for Jwala and Kroda.

To add the icing in the cake this Swathi was the 100 th Swathi ..what is 100 th Swathi ? Lord has been in this ddivyastalam for several yugams and is he only 100 swathi's old .. I will tell you what this 100 swathi is about in the next post.
Be ready to trek with me to all the other kshetras ...

Madhu
NB: I dont want to post the fotos as I would suggest you ppl to visit the place to see the beauty of the place for yourself where in you can enjoy the beauty of the places and get the blessings of the divine Supreme.