The chanting continued.
Jatayu held his breath as his eyes fell on a gaunt old lady. Her flowing white hair let loose in the wind, she sat on a platform in the distance. Her proud, ghostly eyes were fixed on Sita. With her felicitous fingers, she plucked at the strings of the Rudra Veena. Annapoorna devi. The last time she had been seen was the day that she had arrived at Agastyakootam, many years ago. She had stepped out of her home, today. She was playing the Veena in public, consciously breaking her oath. A terrible oath, compelled by a husband she had loved. But there was good reason to break the oath today. It was not every day that the great Vishnu came home.
Om Namo Bhagavate Vishnudevaya
Tasyai Mohinyai namo namah
Salutations to the great God Vishnu
Salutations, Salutations to Lady Mohini
Some purists believed that a Mahadev and a Vishnu could not exist simultaneously. That at any given time, either the Mahadev exists with the tribe of the previous Vishnu, or the Vishnu exists with the tribe of the previous Mahadev. For how could the need for the destruction of Evil coincide with the propagation of Good? Therefore, some refused to believe that Lady Mohini was a Vishnu. Clearly, the Malayaputras sided with the majority that believed that the great Lady Mohini was a Vishnu.
The chanting continued.
Om Namo Bhagavate Vishnudevaya
Tasmai Parshuramaaya namo namah
Salutations to the great God Vishnu
Salutations, Salutations to Lord Parshu Ram
Sita pulled her horse’s reins and stopped as she approached Maharishi Vishwamitra. Unlike the others, he was wearing his angvastram. All the Malayaputras in Agastyakootam were on top of the monolith now.
Sita dismounted, bent and touched Vishwamitra’s feet with respect. She stood up straight and folded her hands together into a Namaste. Vishwamitra raised his right hand.
The music, the chanting, all movement stopped instantly.
A gentle breeze wafted across the summit. The soft sound it made was all that could be heard. But if one listened with the soul, perhaps the sound of ten thousand hearts beating as one would also have been heard. And, if one possessed the power of the divine, one would have also heard the cry of an overwhelmed woman’s heart, as she silently called out to the beloved mother she had lost.
A Malayaputra pandit walked up to Vishwamitra, holding two bowls in his hands. One contained a thick red viscous liquid; and, the other, an equal amount of thick white liquid. Vishwamitra dipped his index and ring finger into the white liquid and then the middle finger in the red liquid.
Then he placed his wrist on his chest and whispered, ‘By the grace of the Mahadev, Lord Rudra, and the Vishnu, Lord Parshu Ram.’
He placed his three colour-stained fingers together in between Sita’s eyebrows, then slid them up to her hairline, spreading the outer fingers gradually apart as they moved. A trident-shaped tilak emerged on Sita’s forehead. The outer arms of the tilak were white, while the central line was red.
With a flick of his hand, Vishwamitra signalled for the chanting to resume. Ten thousand voices joined together in harmony. This time, though, the chant was different.
Om Namo Bhagavate Vishnudevaya
Tasyai Sitadevyai namo namah
Salutations to the great God Vishnu
Salutations, Salutations to Lady Sita
Chapter 15
Late in the evening, Sita sat quietly in the Lord Parshu Ram temple. She had been left alone. As she had requested.
The grand ParshuRamEshwar temple grounds spread over nearly one hundred and fifty acres on the summit of the granite monolith. At the centre was a man-made square-shaped lake, its bottom lined with the familiar reddish-violet riverweeds. It reminded her of the three apparently ‘blood-filled’ streams she had seen at the hidden lagoon. The riverweeds had been grafted here, so that they could survive in these still waters. The lake served as a store for water for the entire city built into this rock formation. The water was transported into the houses through pipes built parallel to the spiral pathway down the curvilinear cave structure.
The two temples of the ParshuRamEshwar complex were constructed on opposite sides of this lake. One was dedicated to Lord Rudra and the other to Lord Parshu Ram.
The Lord Rudra temple’s granite inner structure had been covered with a single layer of red sandstone, transported in ships from a great distance. It had a solid base, almost ten metres in height, forming the pedestal on which the main temple structure had been built. The exterior face of the base was intricately carved with figures of rishis and rishikas. A broad staircase in the centre led to a massive veranda. The main temple was surrounded by delicate lattice, made from thin strips of a copper alloy; it was brown in colour, rather than the natural reddish-orange of the metal. The lattice comprised tiny square-shaped openings, each of them shaped into a metallic lamp at its base. With thousands of these lamps festively lit, it was as if a star-lit sky screened the main temple.
Ethereal.
Beyond the metallic screen holding thousands of lamps, was the Hall of Hundred Pillars. Each pillar was shaped to a near-perfect circular cross-section using elephant-powered lathes. These imposing pillars held the main temple spire, which itself shot up a massive fifty metres. The towering temple spire was carved on all sides with figures of great men and women of the ancient past. People from many groups such as the Sangamtamils, Dwarkans, Manaskul, Adityas, Daityas, Vasus, Asuras, Devas, Rakshasas, Gandharvas, Yakshas, Suryavanshis, Chandravanshis, Nagas and many more. The forefathers and foremothers of this noble Vedic nation of India.
At the centre of the Hall was the sanctum sanctorum. In it were life-size idols of Lord Rudra and the woman he had loved, Lady Mohini. Unlike their normal representations, these idols did not carry weapons. Their expressions were calm, gentle, and loving. Most fascinatingly, Lord Rudra and Lady Mohini held hands.
On the other side of the square lake, facing the Lord Rudra temple, was the temple dedicated to Lord Parshu Ram. Almost exactly similar to the Lord Rudra temple, there was one conspicuous difference: Lord Parshu Ram temple’s granite inner structure was layered on top with white marble. The sanctum sanctorum in the middle of the Hall of Hundred Pillars had life-sized idols of the great sixth Vishnu and his wife, Dharani. And, these idols were armed. Lord Parshu Ram held his fearsome battle axe and Lady Dharani sat with the long bow in her left hand and a single arrow in the other.