Karamana Sathya Vageeswarar temple, Trivandrum

 Karamana   Sathya Vageeswarar  temple, Trivandrum

 Compiled by

P.R.Ramachander

 

 The Karamana Temple is situated in the middle  of Karamana  Agraharam of Trivandrum. It is  believed   that sage Khara  consecrated the Shiva idol on the Karamana   river bank( once called Vanamala river) facing south  and worshipped it, he called it  SAthya  Vagheeswaran (God  who protects  truth) .Since it was place where  Khara lived , it was called  “khara mana”   and later it became kara mana

    Over years  the place attracted  lot of Vedic Scholars   who started living around the temple . They were once attacked  by epidemics and  “deva prasna(questioning god)  “ revealed that they   have  to consecrate  a goddess  also in this temple. One of them got a dream that  the  statue of the Goddess  is available in the Madhura temple pond. The villagers   went to Madhura Temple and searched in the pond and got a devi statute.It seems it was  a rejected  statute of Madurai temple   and they called it  “aavudai amman” . That  Devi Idol was brought in palanquin on the shoulders of devout bhakthas (the palanquin bamboo is still kept at the temple).This  goddess was consecrated in the same room as Lord Shiva., towards  his left side  This is extremely rare  phenomena .In most  of the Shiva temples  , if Amman is there  she is consecrated in  a separate  temple

.Though the goddesx is referred to as Avudayamman , she is also called  Madhura Meenakshi as well    as Gomathi Amman and the temple is known as   Sri Gomathyamba  SAmedha   Sathya  Vagheeswara  temple.

       After the consecration of the Goddess , the village became prosperous and the Travancore king of thise days  presented land around the temple to Tamil speaking Brahmins

       The temple also has huge Nandi made of one stone  as well as    sub temples for Lord subrahmanya , Lord Ganesa and Lord Ayyappa. There is a trange practice  of ringing bells  before opening   the temple

 The most  important festival in the Temple  is Thai posam (12 days) During which  there  is procession of Amman  and Theethavari), Nava Rathri  , Akshaya  trithiya, Skanda sashti , Vinaya chathurthi etc. There  is puspabhishekam to the God Shiva in month of Makaram

The temple is open from 5.15 Am   to  11.30 Am,  and 5.30 Pm to 8.45 Pm

The temple can be contacted  by  telephone 0471-2345667