THATTATHIMOOLAI AND AANAIKUPPAM
Considering the views of elders, it is seen that Thattathimoolai may be the original Vathima Village (VV) and Anaikkuppam is an extension of Thattathimoolai. While Thattathimoolai had more number of Vathima households Aanaikuppam had only very few houses belonging to Vathima community.
THATTATHIMOOLAI
Thattathimoolai is a village situated 5 km from Nannilam in Thiruvarur district. It has five major temples - the Shiva temple, the mariamman temple(2), ayyanar temple and Perumal Temple. The village was historically known as Thadakandapuram. The Shivan temple and Ayyanar temple are very famous for the historic reasons. The village houses 300 families. Only 3 or 4 families belong to Vathima community now. Number of families was about 25 to 30 originally. However, it has reduced to 3 or 4 now. The village can be reached by a bus service Bus No 16 from Nannilam and Tiruvarur.
The distance between Thattathimoolai and Anaikuppam is 1.5 km. the distance between Tiruvarur and Thattathimoolai is 15 km while it is 13 km from Nannilam.
Sivan Koil:
THANJAVUR DISTRICT is dotted with numerous villages several of which are connected to episodes in the Ramayana as their names suggest. For example, Nallamangudi, Adambar, Kollumangudi (near Nannilam in Tiruvarur district) are named after the story that Sita sights the beautiful deer (Nallamangudi), Ram decides to kill the deer after knowing who it is, (Hathambar or Adambar) and the deer is killed (Kollumangudi).
Thatakanthapuram, also called Thattathimoolai, belongs to this group. Legend has it that when Thataka was chased by Rama she hid herself here but the prince killed her. Thattathimoolai is about 5 km south of Nannilam. It is also about 3 km west of Srivanchium, famous abode of Lord Shiva. It is also said that when Goddess Visalakshi along with Lord Viswanatha was on her way to Srivanchium to take bath in the holy tank, "Gupta Ganga Theertham", she took rest in Thattathimoolai. True to the legend, Sri Visalakshi is found in a sitting posture along with her consort, a rare sight. Situated on the banks on Vallappar river, this beautiful village has this holy Siva temple. The temple, apart from Viswanatha and Visalakshi shrines, has shrines for Ganapathy, Subramanya, Yoka Dakshinamoorthy and Saneeswara. The temple is conducted as per the Siva agama procedures called "Kamigam".
Perumal Temple:
On the west side of the village is located a shrine for Lord Varadaraja with his Consorts Sree Devi and Bhoo Devi. Sravanam in the Tamil month of Purattasi attracts a huge number of devotees to this temple.
Ayyanar Koil:
Regarding the Ayyanar there is a story. A small boy approached a cart man with a load of sugarcane and asked for a piece of sugarcane. But the cart man said that the cart contained only bamboos. The next morning the entire cart load turned into bamboos. Feeling the presence of Swamy Ayyanar they submitted a bundle of sugarcane as a mark of respect. This practice is continued even now. During the month February-March, (masi) every year there is a festival to this effect.
Karumbayiram Konda Iyyanar (pic above)
Personalities connected with the village:
1. Shri Regu Aiyaswamy – Vice President, Tata Consultancy Services
2. Shri Ramamoorthy – Practicing Chartered accountant
AANAIKUPPAM:
As stated, this is a satellite village and from very old people it is learned that this is not a Vathima village. People from Mozhaiyur immigrated to this place either because of their new relationships in Thattathimoolai or by a process of migration. The Agraharam is in the shape of Tamil letter 'PA'. This place had originally 3 or 4 Vathima families and now it seems there is only one from the community.
Culture related features:
There is a Sivan temple and Perumal temple.
Celebrities connected to the village:
Sri Flute Ramani married from this village.
Courtesy:
Sri Krishnamurthy Kalyanaraman, Retd Professor, University of Kerala, is an erudite scholar hailing from Konerirajapuram
Special thanks to Smt. Malathi Jayaramani, Kumbakonam fpr sharing this article.