Kollam: For the first time in the country, a temple in Thiruvananthapuram will have a goddess idol which is named after 51 Malay letters in the alphabet.
The idol was spent in Myladi, the second largest sculpture village after Thinggavoor in Tamil Nadu, will be taken to the Pournamevu Temple, Chavadinada, near Vizhinjam, 17 kilometers from the city, and will be sanctified on the Mahanavami day.
The Devi Temple is open only on Pournami (full moon) every month.
The ambitious project to make idols for each letter was taken after decades of research and discussion with the Head of Tantris Temple of Big Temples, including the Pushpanjali Swamyar from the Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple, Namboodiri Mitran.
The famous Damodaran Kaithaphram lyrics are also consulted as part of the project, said Bhuvanachandran Binvanachandran Temple.
“The gods of each Malayalam letter are found based on the writings of the Vedas Rig, Siva Samhita, Devi Bhagavatam, HarinamakeThanam, and on the critical reference Adi Shankara.
Before improving the final form of god, a few decades of long and discussions were held.
In ancient times, Wise people realize the power of the letter and have recorded it for the benefits of offspring, “said Bhuvanachandran.
The first challenge is to codify all this knowledge and arrive at the final detail of the idol.
The sculptors and researchers have also been through research studies and compare it to what is stated about it in Vedas.
They realized that all gods behind letters were Dewi in Devi’s cult.
They identified 51 gods and took them to live in the numbers of stones issued by the main sculptor of Myladi.
They have sculpted each letter at the bottom of each idol.
According to Pushpanjali Swamyar, this reference to gods can be found in Harinamake Desertanam (Sloka -14 to 16).
Even though Dewi Saraswati was considered a goddess of knowledge, she was the god of Malayalam ‘Tha’.
It can be noted that in Veda and Purana there is a reference to Dewi times wearing a bouquet of 51 skulls that represent the letters.
Each idol here has different clothes, jewelry, weapons and Vahaba (rides).
“Before deciding more than pictures of three-dimensional gods, complicated efforts were made to prepare statues with all minute details based on the scriptures in the Vedas and Epos,” said the head of the statue of Madankumar.