Kanipakkam

During a recent visit to Chittoor in April, I visited the Ganesh Temple at Kanipakkam. This is a famous temple situated about twelve kilometers from Chittoor. It can be accesed from the Bangalore Bye Pass road as well as from the city. As we travel towards Chittoor on the Bangalore road, just before entering Chittor the road forks. The right hand of the fork leads into Chittoor town; the left goes onward to Bangalore. Journeying down this road for about three kilometers we reach the right turn for the Thirrupathi bye-pass. The sign post for Kanipakkam is clearly displayed and after a drive of about twelve kilometers we reach Kanipakkam which is on the left hand side of the road.

The temple has been beautifully renovated and the temple gopuram is elegant and imposing from the distance. Apparently, the temple attracts huge crowds as there are provisinons for handling long winding queues. Luckily, we had no problems as the day we visited was the date of the Final World Cup Cricket Match!

Opposite the main entrance which is reached by a covered pathway from both North and South is the temple tank. We washed our feet therein and thus purified entered the temple. The temple as such is slightly below ground level possibly because the original sanctum was once a pool of blood. The sanctumis a small shrine and the murthy is swayambhoo; a rock formation resembling the elephant headed God with a huge golden crown atop the “head” of the image.

On the way back after Darshan one of the priests who was distributing the holy water was kind enough to relate the sthala puranam or “story of the place”.

The Kanipakkam Sthala Puranam

The land where the temple is now situated had originally been donated to group of handicapped people by the local king. They were suffering from a diverse set of disabilities such as blindness, hearing impairment and so on. One day as they were digging a well for water, the trowel hit a rock. Blood spurted out from the place where the metal had made a gash in the rock and splattered on the handicapped people. Lo and behold they were made whole and regained their faculties. The blood gushing forth from the “wound” spread out and intermingled with the coconut water from the coconuts that devotees broke near the shrine. This liquid got collected in shallow pool which had an area of about a Kani (one and half acres) of land! Thus was derived the name Kani Paarkam or water occupying one kani of land. Eventually the diety was identified as Ganesh from the distinct ewlephat head and trunk. The miraculous property of this “water” flowing from the idol spread far and wide and people with incurable maladies flocked t o Kanipakkam for relief from their sufferings and a cure ofor their unfortunate condition. The water flowed freely and entered the nearby Bahula rive which was earlier flowing qqquite near the temple precincts. It has currently receded further.

How the river got its name is another miraculous story. Two brothers had wandered into a chieftain’s mango grove. Being extremely hungry, the younger of the two ate a mango. The owner who was the local chieftain ordained that the handsand legs of the “thief” be severed from his body! Thus cruelly mutilated for a minor offence, the younger brother was taken by the elder to Kanipakkam where they placed their complaint at the santum of Lord Ganesha. When the water of the river touched thw body the younger brother regained his limbs . In Sanskrit, Baahuy means hands or limbs and as it had made the limbs grow again this cleansing and curing river was henceforth called “Bahula”.

This story also gives credibility to a prevailing belief that people who are unjustly punished or accused can pray to the deity and obtain relief. Similarly a confession made openly and sincerely at Kanipakkam absolves the commiter of the offence from the sin or Papa. Under the Evidence Act a confession made before a maguistrate alone can be enforcedas evidence in a court of law. But British judges and subsequently Indian courts have consistently allowed and admitted as evidence the statement of a person who had heard the accused make an open confession at Kanipakkam! Nowadays the statement is taken as a relevant fact or corroborative evidence.

There is a temple to Hanuman nearby on a small hillock called Ardhakonda (Or part of a mountain). Thisd is in allusion to the popular belief that this hillock is a piece of the famous Sanjeevani Hill that fell down in this area while Hanuman was porting it to the battle field in Lanka. Due to paucity of time we could not make it there.

The temple is open almost throughout the day. The sanctum is open till 4:00 PM when it is closed for an hour to perform Abishekam. Avoid Sundays as it can be quite crowded on that day.