DEVIPURAM

Sri Annapurneswari Bhagavathy Temple, known for its divinity, has stood for more than four centuries in a small village of Devipuram. The people of the village, irrespective of caste and creed, have immense devotion, faith, respect and more than that, their own pride,of residing in this village where this ancient and prominent temple, which provides,ooroottu (langar) system is situated. Even to this day, there are two rituals, which have been carried out for centuries and are unique to this temple. Every evening, after "deep aaradhana", or the evening pooja, a burning oil wick from the temple is taken to the nearby mosque to light the lantern in the mosque. This has been the tradition ever since, as it is belived that goddess annapoorna came to this temple in a boat paddled by a muslim, who had asked her this favour forever.

There is also another custom which is being followed daily, even today. Every night, before the temple doors are shut, the temple caretaker climbs the platform around the sacred banyan tree and calls out to anyone who is starving and would want supper. The doors are shut only after ensuring, that no devotee of the devi(goddess) is starving. Afterall, she is Annapoorna, one who provides Anna or food.

But lately, many untoward incidents, many unforseen happenings and developments have been taking place in this village, and for that reason or maybe not, a significant drop in the rush of devotees coming to the temple, and a significant drop in the numbers of the float traders, and devotees coming from other parts, began to be experienced.

The locals and devotees started to suspect that the deities in the temple, mata Annapoorneswari and Lord Krishna were unhappy about something. In the meeting held in the following days, the matter was discussed as members of the Gram Samiti and Ambalam (Temple) Committee, and immediately decided to stage a astrological analysis (Deva Prashna) to understand this issue in detail.

For this task, they decided to invite Jyotisha Shiromani, Maniyangate Valya Thirumeni, who by far is the best person for such poojas and seatings.

At the instance of the rev. Maniyangatte Thirumeni (Holy Highness), eleven astrologers, suggested by the revered himself were organised by the Ambalam committee members. The day to hold this major ceremony was calculated and arrived by the revered Thirumeni.

This was for the first time in sixty years, that a pooja of this scale and importance was being conducted within the ancient temple. Eventhough this whole affair was a highly expensive ritual, the temple had ample funds to handle this ceremony. The equally concerned devotees went all out to contribute whatever they could to ensure that this ritual was done with no obstacles whatso ever.

All preparations were done meticulously and well within the stipulated time and date.

The rituals, under the supervision of Maniyangatte Valiya Thirumeni, commenced on time and the facts behind the current state of the temple and the village started to get unrevealed with the progression of the ceremony.

Amongst the many issues, the gods were not happy about, three main concerns were of firstly the conditions of the mural paintings within the temple, which were fading and the Devi was very unhappy to see them in such detoriarated and neglected condition. Secondly, the pond which she bathes is completely polluted and unworthy for bathing and thi rdly, she has been known for her benevolence in providing Anna, Food to the needy, but of late there has been a lot of corruption taking place in the annaprasaada (Free Food) department and the devotees are not being fed good food.

The Ambalam Committee decided to solve all the issues which were highlighted in this ritual and cleanse the temple before the annual temple festival, which was just round the corner..

The decision taken by the committee is to clean the Ambalam pond as soon as possible. All the youth and social workers of the village, started to undertake this task. They showed enthusiasm which was no less than of a festival in itself.

The floor of the sacred temple pond was filled with anti-social items like liquor bottles, syringes, condoms, etc., all of which were found by the locals from this tank. This village had never seen such a shameful situation.

The sacred temple tank, or CHIRA, as was commonly called by the villagers,within two days, was full, overflowing to its past glory. After many years, its blue color was seen by all. Whatever the case may be, Devi must have felt happy about this one thing, otherwise, many migratory birds, who had not come for years, would not have returned to Ambalam Chira again.