Hariprasad’s Weblog

Last week, Samata and I combined a personal visit to Mangalore (to attend a marriage) with some work on the “Temples of Tulunadu” project. I was able to visit Belmannu, Bola, Kandalike and Pavanje. In the coming weeks, I will publish small writeups, as usual, on the Anandatirtha website. Visiting these temples right in the middle of the monsoon was indeed a challenge but the effort left me immensely pleased. In addition, we also visited Nellitheertha, Palimaru, Kulai and a small Mukhyaprana temple in Hosabettu, near Suratkal. I have come back spiritually re-charged

I am closing in on twenty temples now as part of the project. My first milestone has been 50 temples. If I am able to complete this in around 2 years (started sometime September 2008), that will be a great beginning.

In another good development, the Vishnusahasranama portal is seeing some good traction. Madhusimha’s untiring efforts led to the completion of the pages for the 1000 names. We are now full time into developing individual pages for each of the names. Madhusimha has also kindly agreed to contribute to this. In addition, my (e-)friend   Gautham Shenoy has also joined us. I am very optimistic that the portal will now see rapid development.

Articles on

• Kathelsar Vishnumurthy Temple
• Athuru Bailu Ganapati Temple

You can read an article on Komapadavu Sri Vishnumurthy Temple over here.

Read my new article on the Moodappa Seve held at Nellitheertha over here.

Recently, the annual temple festival was conducted at Nellitheertha. The 5 day festival went off very well and thousands of devotees attended the festivities. One of the key highlights of this year’s festival was the felicitation held for Sri Subramanya Tantri, the “tantri” for our temple.

Tantris are a special class of Brahmins revered in Tulu Nadu. They are a small sect of Brahmins who hold the rights to perform/conduct Jaatres or annual festivals in temples. In addition, all the major religious events in the temple are conducted under their supervision. Tantris are extremely well versed in Agama Shastras and therefore know all the correct rituals and mantras in conducting temple worship. During the annual festival, the chief priest of the temple takes a backseat and works under the supervision/guidance of the Tantri.

Over hundreds of years, the families of Tantris has branched out and consequently, they take turns in every temple. Nellitheertha has always come under the supervision of the Tantris from “Yedapadavu” which is a small town about 10kms from the village. It is said that as soon as Lord Parashurama created the Western coast (Parashurama Kshetra), the Yedapadavu tantris were the first to hold the Kamandala!!

Sri Subramanya Tantri is one of the Tantris from the Yedapadavu clan and has been coming to our temple for over 30 years. Under his expert guidance, the temple has progressed immensely and is today considered one of the must-see places of Tulu Nadu. We decided to therefore hold a small ceremony to honor this great Guru!

Smt & Sri Subramanya Tantri (my mother standing beside)

Sanmana Sabha (my dad on extreme left)

The chief administrator of the Ambalpadi Janardana temple, Sri Vijay Ballal, presided over the function. Sri Sri Lakshmi Narayana Asranna, the chief priest of Sri Kateel Durga Parameshwari temple, Sri Bhuvanabhirama Udupa, Sri Bhujanga Shetty and other dignitaries were present at the ocassion.

Sri Baggamajalu Subramanya Tantri

Sri NVGK Bhat reading the certificate

Yours truly got to propose the vote of thanks in the end!

Vote of Thanks

Read the article here.

Read the article here.

Read the article here.

Read the article here.

A couple of weeks ago, the month of Karthika was celebrated at the Nellitheertha temple. A “deepotsava” was held and thousands of lamps were lit.

Temple entrance

Hundreds of lamps

Our scriptures mention that lighting lamps in the month of Karthika is extremely auspicious. Throughout India, people make it a point to light at least a couple of additional lamps during the entire month.

Ranga Puje

Lamps

A Ranga Puje was held on the ocassion. Later in the evening, a “Bali Utsava’ was also conducted for Lord Somanatheshwara.

Bali

Bali suttu