“Thai Amavasai Day” is celebrated to commemorate the devotion of Abhirami Pattar. The story teaches us that Mother Goddess will always bless and protect us, so long as we show faith and devotion towards her. This rangoli beautifully captures Abhirami Pattar’s devotion for the Goddess Abhirami whom he considered as his mother! We are happy to share videos of the step by step drawing of this rangoli in two parts.
ABIRAMI PATTAR’S DEVOTION – RANGOLI DEMO PART I
ABIRAMI PATTAR’S DEVOTION – RANGOLI DEMO PART II
STORY OF ABHIRAMI PATTAR’S DEVOTION
A small village, Thirukadaiyur in Tamilnadu was famous for its Shiva Temple called Amritaghateshwarar-Abhirami Temple. In this village, a child, Subramaniya was born to Amirthalinga Iyer. He later became a famous saint and an author of a collection of Hymns called Abhirami Anthadhi.
From early childhood, Subramaniya was drawn towards the temple and the presiding Goddess, Abhirami. The name “Abhirami” means “one whose beauty cannot be measured”. Subramaniya was a learned scholar and an astrologer. Subramaniya’s devotion to the Goddess was so immense that he would often sit still, staring at the Goddess, totally oblivious of his surroundings. His eyes would sometimes be filled with tears and his face would light up with a sudden smile! Sometimes he would go to the women devotees and call out, “Abhirami! Abhirami!” till they told him to go away. Very soon people started calling him as the mad man of the village.
One day, it was the morning of the new moon day of the Tamil month of “Thai”. As usual Subramaniya stood transfixed looking at the resplendent beauty of the Goddess. He felt that the face of the Goddess was shining as bright as a full moon! On that particular day, the Maratha King, Raja Serfoji I Bhonsle visited the village of Thiruladaiyur to pay respect to the deities of the temple. When the King entered the sanctum he was enraged to see someone sitting and muttering a prayer without paying any heed to him. He was upset with the audacity of the man.
The people around took the opportunity to talk ill about Subramaniya. The priest of the temple could stand it no more and told the King to pardon Subramaniya saying that he was actually a learned man and an astrologer. “Oh Goddess! Your face is thousand times brighter than the full moon today”, Subramaniya spoke thus, loudly to himself. Hearing this, the King challenged him saying that it was a new moon day. Subramaniya looked at the King and said, “Goddess Abhirami is my mother. If I have said it is a full moon day today, it must be so. The words spoken by me are not mine but my Mother’s”.
The furious King then told Subramaniya that, if the full moon did not appear that night, he would be killed. Not perturbed, Subramaniya started singing hymns on the glory of the Goddess with the belief that before the hundredth hymn, the full moon would appear in the sky. Subramaniya started composing the hymns in the Anthaadhi form where the ending word of one hymn will be the beginning word of the next.
Soon a crowd gathered to see what would happen next. Would the full moon come up as per the mad man’s prediction or would he face death? As soon as Subramaniya finished the 79th hymn, a strange miracle happened. The shimmering figure of the Goddess was seen rising over the horizon. She then threw her earring into the sky and in the next moment a full moon was seen shining brightly in the vast sky! The entire village was soon flooded with this light!
The crowd cheered for Subramaniya and the King felt remorseful for treating this great saint in such a shameful manner. He understood his steadfast devotion and gave him land and many gifts including the title of “Abhirami Pattar”. “Pattar means “One who worships”. Subramaniya with utmost modesty finished 21 more hymns in the praise of the Goddess and 2 more, one for Lord Ganesha and one final concluding verse.
– Rangoli By Smt.Janani Raghavan
