The next shrine of the Goddess was at Gangaikondacholapuram. You just realize how hopelessly small you really are. Your heart skips a beat, and you lose your breath when you see the five hooded serpent and the Goddess in complete red, against the lamplight. In the darkness, it looked out of the world with the small ghee lamps burning in its lap as it shielded them from the rain. It looked deadly, as if the snakes almost came to life as i took the courage to touch the stone they were carved out of. A sculpture of a five hooded serpent with two and a half coils. Whats also amazing is a strange sculpture i have not seen anywhere else.
She bore weapons in her various hands and sat on her seat flexing her body most gracefully. She sat there eight handed getting bathed first in oil and then in kumkum. I have never seen a more beautiful form of the Goddess. They undressed the Mother and bathed her in oil. She was carved in stone, looked fierce and coy at the same time, in the same pose as shown above. Its one of the few shrines i stood in front of, it was just timeless. Oh! that vision of the Goddess is something i will never forget. The first sight of her of course is breathtaking as she is dressed in a white dress, bathed in kumkum. Inside the shrine sits the goddess, in true beauty. He holds his hair up and attempts cutting his head with a sword, sacrificing himself to the Goddess. The walls around her are decorated with scenes of a king in the act of decapitation while his army watches on. She is not in the main shrine but on the side. This is by far one of the most amazing Kaliamman shrines i have ever set my eyes on. At Chidambaram, and not within the great temple, but behind it is a shrine to be seen. Moving on, as one leaves Kumbhakonam and heads for Chidambaram, the tamil countryside lies dotten with fields interspaced with temples and minor shrines of village deities. Who would believe that a small village like Nellur, would even host a fantastic shrine for the Goddess and how many people would be privileged enough to get off the beaten track to go and see this form of the Goddess! Here she has a shrine all to herself, on the outside of a Shiva temple, which lies among very calm and peaceful fields of south indian countryside. Moving on as one takes the road to Kumbhakonam, we cross two places called Nellur and Papanasam. In Tanjore, amman does not occupy a seat within the walls of the Brihadeshwara temple complex but is found 3kms away. Further down at trichy she resides again near the Rackfort temple. Here the shrine is known to be extremely potent and can be visited only on Mondays and Fridays.
Moving on, it was particularly interesting to note the presence of Kaliamman at wayside village temples near Samayapuram, enroute to Trichy. This imagery finds place even in the Varaha cave. Apart from this, the goddess is profusely carved in the Draupadi ratha, with a scene of decapitation happening right next to her. None the less, in this particular cave, all you get to see are Vishnu and Mother goddess, the actors of this particular drama, being carved out of the rocky walls.
In the amman cult, durga is supposed to have destroyed them. References to the same are made in dance where Vishnu is supposed to have woken up and faced them. Mahishasuramardhini or Durga, is supposed to have destroyed the demons Madhu and Kaitaba who attempted killing Vishnu while he slept on Ananta. It was an interesting discovery i made when i was reading yet another book on the Goddess.
Its not just a madness in Bengal, today's Durga puja would have seen a lot more versions in the South in earlier days. This is seconded by the strong presence of the Naga cult, but for now lets stick to Kali. It is interesting however to see the presence of the cult of Kali in the historical temples across the Tamil Nadu region. Kali amman shrines: South Indian temples profusely depict a simple standing amman(mother goddess) shrine inside most Shiva and Vishnu temples.
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