Today’s Alankaram is Ardhanariswara, for Navaratri Panchami. We hadn’t planned to be there the whole day but once we got there, there was no leaving – something about the process by which this form was built almost entirely out of the cloth-formed limbs and then banana stem pieces – banana stem “pattai” or flat pieces or the stem core “thandu” pieces – was so mesmerising, we couldn’t bring ourselves to leave. The process also went well, in the sense that the priests got the proportions right from the start and didn’t have much undoing and redoing (but for the arms which were originally tied to the frame and brought out front more later, so that they didn’t seem like they were growing from the back of the body). The whole form was then covered with maravalli kizhangu maavu, tapioca flour, made in two colours: blue for Uma, a mustard yellow for Siva, பச்சை நீரம் and செந்நீரம், said the priest, green and red-hued. The colours made for some fine photos and videography. Having filled my phone (again), I switched to camera videos which were so much more alluring I wished I’d done this from the very start. Arun’s been taking on camera from the get-go (smart). Then the face was shaped and body was painted over – what an alankaram this was. The inspiration: Ardhanariswara from Thiruchengode, who is shown holding a sengol in exactly the way he is in the alankara. Sivavijay said he always wanted to go to this temple, but had never had the fortune to go.
Thiruchengode is a hilltop temple, a padal petra sthalam on the Salem-Erode National Highway. Sambandar’s திருக்கொடிமாடச் செங்குன்றூர்/ Thirukodimaada Chengunrur (old name for Thiruchengode like “Senthi Nagar” is a name for Thiruchendur) His hymn “Venthaven Neeraninthu” describes the Lord wearing sacred ash and having the Goddess as one half of his body.
One story: The rishi Bhrngi was an ardent devotee of Siva, but he refused to worship Parvati. In some versions of the story, he transformed himself into a bee or a small insect and attempted to circle Siva alone, even when Siva and Parvati were seated together. Parvati, displeased that her own divinity was being excluded, sought to become inseparable from Siva. In the familiar account, Siva granted her a place as half of his body, revealing the Ardhanariswara form. The legend conveys an important theological point: the Goddess cannot be separated from Siva, because Shakti is intrinsic to Siva himself. The temple's own sthala purana includes the tradition of Bhrngi's worship.