Uvari Sri Suyambu Linga Swamy Temple.

A view of Uvari Sea

Ovari is a beautiful landscape by the shore of the Bay of Bengal in Tirunelveli district, Tamilndu. It is a place known for spirituality and nature. The land has its own significance. The place is decorated with the ornaments of nature like tall palm trees, the jasmine spreading pleasant odour, the joyous sea always making merry, the cows grazing with their young ones and Ipomea Biloba spreading at the sea shore like green carpet. All these pastures add charm to the divine place, ovari. Lord Shiva, the presiding deity of the place showers his grace and blessings on the devotees.

Ovari is located between Koodankulam and Tiruchendur. Ovari is the only place in Tamilnadu that has a shiva temple beside the sea. Besides Sri Suyambu Linga (Lord Shiva) Brahma Shakthi Amman also showers her blessings presiding in a temple by the left side of Lord Shiva’s shrine.

The village Ovari is divided into two parts, East Ovari and West Ovari. The main Occupation of this village is farming, rearing cattles and fishing. Ovari is a mixture of many communities.

    The greatness is that they all live together maintaining communal amity. The majority people of East Ovari were Yadahava Community. The Yadhava people depended on cattle rearing for their livelihood. The men of the community look after the cattle and the women of the community prepare curd, buttermilk and ghee at their homes and take these along with the milk of the cows on their head to sell in West Ovari. The East and the west Ovari were once connected by a narrow path. The ladies of East Ovari had to walk through it to reach west Ovari. The rest of the place was covered with ‘Kadamba Kodi’ (Ipomea Biloba)


Oter View Of  Temple

Holy Pond Of Temple

    Women walking in rows with mud pods filled with milk and other diary products one on the other on their heads is a feast to the human eyes. Usually ladies go to sell their products in the early morning. One day in the distant past, when they were all walking so, one woman happened to stumble accidentally, that she fell down off the path on the creepers (Ipomea Biloba)The poor woman was afraid that her husband might become angry and behave brutally for not bringing home money. The fellow women consoled her and send her home. The poor woman was walking home in panic without money and without pots. The husband of the women didn’t take that happening seriously as expected by the women.

As usual, nextday the woman went out with her pots for business. Astonishingly, she fell down on the creepers exactly where she had fallen the previous day. Once again the milk in the pot splashed over the creepers. In dread, the woman returned home. This time her husband lost his temper and fists her down. The stumbling and breaking of the pots became the regular one for the woman. In confusion the woman narrated the mystery to her husband. Accompanied by her husband, the woman came to the spot and pointed out the creeper (Ipomea Biloba). The husband with a dagger cut off the Ipomea Biloba. To his surprise blood ozzed out from the root of the Ipomea Biloba, he couldn’t understand from where the blood was flowing.The puzzled man informed the matter to the president of the village.The president of the village and the people rushed to the spot.The Ipomea Biloba was bleeding profusely.The president of the village ordered to dig the root out.The yadhava started to dig deep and he could not find the end of the root.He fell down tierd. At the very moment the village president fell into a transcendental state and spoke out as if he was lord shiva.He told them he was lord shiva in the form of ‘Linga’ who had come to bless the people.He also told them they could stop the bleeding if they applied the ground paste of the sandal wood tree near by.

The yadhava was confuced because it was imposible to find sandal tree in the sea shore. Lord through the president asked him to go to a particular place where he could find the sandal tree. The yadhava and the people hurried to the spot and to their wonder, they saw the sandal tree and admired the the power of Sri Suyambulinga. They cut the sandal tree and ground it into paste and applied it on the wound. The blood which was profusely oozing out immediately clotted. This is the reason that the priests of Sri Suyambulinga temple offer the devotees sandal powder mixed with water to apply on the fore head and all over their body. As the ‘sivalinga’ rose up naturally from the ground in the sae shore of ovari; it is called as Suyambilinga. The idol of Suyambulinga in Ovari is not man-made one.

The Yadhava fell on the feet of Sri Suyambulinga and pleaded to forgive him. The president of the village became the trustee of the temple. A temporary shelter was erected for the Lord Shiva and pooja was offerd thrice a day. The roof of the temple was made of coconut leaves. One day a heavy storm hit the village accompained by heavy down pour. The roofs of the houses in the village were all levelled. Coconut trees, banana trees and plantations were all rooted out. But to the surprise of the people, no single leaf in the roof of the temple was slit open. The idol remained the same as decorated the previous day.

The people admired the power o f Sri Suyambulinga. The people immediately took a firm decision to build a big temple for the Lord and it was constructed by the people of Kanyakumari district and Tirunelveli district under the help and guidance of the trustree. They also constructed ‘Maths‘for the devotees to stay and workship the Lord.


Inside View Of Temple.

The Lord is in the ‘Linga form’. He bears the moon and the sun on his head. A five headed snake idol is found behind the Linga idol spreading its hood, which appears like an umbrella for the Lord. The devotees first take bath in the sae and take bath in the fresh water pond and worship ‘Lord Kanni Vinayaga’. Then they worship Sri Suyambulinga, Goddess Brhama Sakthi Amman, Goddess Essaki Amman, Lord Munnodi and Lord Sastha. Lord Brhama Sakthi Amman is a very power ful goddess. She is known for her kindness. Once, the hand of the idol broke off. The trustree replaced it with a new idol and put the old idol in to the sea. The very day the goddess appeared in his dream and questioned him whether he would throw one of his child in to the sea if it was born lame? The trustee realized his mistake and he also found the old idol washed ashore and re-constructed it and offered pooja.

The ‘Thala Viriksha’ (plant) of Ovari Temple is ‘Kadamba Kodi’ (Ipomea Biloba). Many neem trees were planted around the temple to provide shadows by trustees. Throughout the Tamil month of ‘Margazhi’ the sun rays fall directly on ‘Sri Suyambulinga‘in the morning, which is indeed a splendid sight. The sun rays over the head of the Lord appear like ‘Surya Abishekam’.

Wonders

Koonasari Chockalingam’s bent back became normal due to his 41 days of ‘Viradha’. He constucted a ‘math’ for the devotees in thankfulness and devotion.

An old woman got completely cured from lepracy.

The younger brother of koon Pandian got relieved of his curse and also got cured from his disease here.

During colonisation, an English collector who ruled Tirunelveli District tried to root out Sri Suyambulinga. It ended in vain as he could not find the lower end of the idol.

When the construction of temple was in progress, two bullock carts carrying stones from Kanyakumari District were moving towards ovari. When they tried to cross the river ‘Nattaru’ near Valliyoor, one of the bullock carts was washed away by flood. The man who went with him prayed to God to save his friend. A vision appeared that the Lord was galloping fast on the back of a White Horse. In a split of seconds the vision vanished. To his wonder, he found his friend and the bullock cart safe pushed aside by the flood.

Munnodi Raj from Madurai was adivised by the doctors of Sathiya Saibaba Hospital, Banglore to undergo an operation one year later to solve his heart valve problem. He had strong belief in Sri Suyambulinga. The priest of the temple advised him to eat a very little quantity of powdered sandal of the temple every morning. When Munnodi Raj went to the hospital a year later for operation, the doctors found it a medical miracle that he was completely cured and there was no need for an operation.

An old woman from pandara puram (K.K.dist) was pricked by a very big thorn which made a very big hole in her leg. She was unable to bear the pain. She under went treatment in many hospitals which all proved fruitless. Finally, she surrendered her problem to Sri Suyambulinga. The priest gave her sandal and neerium of flowers and advised her to grind both and apply it on the wound. The old woman did it as advised by the priest continuously for some days. The wound healed and pain disappeared.

There are many other incidents as said above which glorify the power of Sri Suyambulinga. Each and every devotee has witnessed it and experienced it.

Distance Covered

From Kanyakumari 60 K.M

From Koodankulam 30 K.M

From Tirunelveli 70 K.M

From Tiruchenthour 40 K.M

From Thoothukurin 80 K.M

From Rameswaram 250 K.M

To Know More About Suyambu Linga Swamy Visit

http://www.uvarisuyambulingaswamy.com/historyeng.asp