The God with 360 brides!!

For some reason, I have recently been visiting quite a few temples. Not that I am complaining - I love temples, especially ones with some story behind them. This is about one of them with an interesting and entertaining story. The temple is called the Nithya Kalyana Perumal temple and is located in a place called Thiruvidandhai, on the ECR, 3 kms past Kovalam as you drive from Madras. Historical references to this temple apparently date back to the 10th century A.D.

The story goes as follows : A celestial damsel who was cursed to mortality approached Sage Kalava for redemption - if he married her, she would be redeemed. The sage obliged, but as it turned out, she was admitted back to heaven but the sage was not. So she stayed back for a while and the couple had 360 daughters and she returned to heaven leaving the sage to grapple with the offspring! The eldest daughter was called Komalavalli and she was intent on marrying Lord Narayana and prayed to Him everyday asking Him to accept her as His bride. Since Komalavalli wouldn't marry anyone other than the Lord and she being the eldest daughter, the other daughters also could not be married off. The sage was a very worried man. One day he met this bright young man with whom he was very impressed and asked him if he would marry his daughter. Komalavalli, though, was not interested in anyone other than Narayana Himself. Subsequently, the young man is revealed as Narayana and Komalavalli accepts him. Now that the sage knew who his son-in-law-to-be was, he asked him to marry all his daughters which the Lord did. So for one full year, Lord Narayana married the sage's daughters one a day and the sage found his way to heaven!!!

Since the Lord marries everyday, the temple is called Nithya Kalaya Perumal Temple. The main deity is Lakshmi Varaha Perumal (Narayana in the form of a boar) with - Akhilavalli Thayar as the consort (all the daughter finally collapse into one consort). There is a separate shrine for Komalavalli Thayar. The site is supposed to be the ashram of the sage.

I read the story in a newspaper and went to the temple with huge curiosity. There are several unanswered questions - why the form of a boar? why was the sage refused admittance to heaven in the first place? why 360 daughters? why does the Lord marry all of them?

While I haven't found any answers to the above questions, I did find this interesting piece in Chennai Online : `Vaishnavite lore has it that all of us are females and the Lord Narayana is the only male - Purushothama. For ultimate salvation we have to seek eternal union with him. It is only in this context that Thirumangai Alwar offers 10 hymnal endearments (pasurams) to the Lord yearning for merger in him. The ‘Nayika’ (bride) seeks merger in the ‘Nayaka’ (bridegroom). This is, in essence, bridal mysticism. It is against this background that Thiruvidanthai assumes special significance when we pray to the Lord for marriage - wish fulfillment in an earthly way but with a sublime connotation. We must understand and appreciate the spirit and significance behind a reverential pilgrimage to this temple.'

The temple though is very earthy in its operations. The temple is famous for the fact that unmarried people who come here and complete 9 pradakshanas will quickly find the spouse of their dreams!