Visit to Maharajapuram and Bhaskararajapuram

April 2009: On Chitra Pournami Day, Vidya and I visited Maharajapuram and Bhaskararajpuram in South India. We left Chennai early in the morning and drove the 'Santro' on the national highway to Tiruchy. Enroute, we had two brief stopovers - the first one at Neyveli Township where we prayed at the Bhuvaneswari Temple, and the next one at Vaitheeswaran Koil for lunch at the Hotel Sathabhishekam.

Maharajapuram is my ancestral village in Tamil Nadu. The well-known musician family of Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer hails from this village. The village is located near Thirukodikaval in Thanjavur District. There is a small but beautiful Vishnudurga temple in this village. Unlike most Durga idols that have ten hands, the stone idol in this temple has just four hands with Shanku and Chakram as seen on Vishnu. I am not sure how old this temple is. According to an inscription at the temple, Sage Durvaasar worshipped the Vishnudurga at this location. If this is to be believed, the temple has to be several thousands years old. We were blessed to witness abhishekam, floral decoration and archanai to the deity. We prayed to Vishnudurga for the welfare of all.

The adjacent village is Bhaskararajapuram. This is the village where the great scholar Bhaskara Raya lived. Bhaskara_Raya (1690-1785) is considered an authority on questions pertaining to the worship of the Mother Goddess (Shakti) in Hinduism .The worship of Shakti involves numerous mantras and coded passages. Bhaskara Raya was well-versed in these mantras. His writings number more than 40 and range from Vedanta to poems of devotion and from logic and grammar to the Science of Tantra. His masterpieces include three books: Varivasya Rahasyam, Sowbhagya Bhaskaram and Sethu Bandham - considered to be the holy triad on the worship of the Mother Goddess. The first is a scientific commentary on Sri Vidya mantra and worship. The second is a commentary on Lalita sahasranama. The third is a deeper technical treatise on Tantric practice.

Bhaskara Raya was born in Maharashtra, India. His father was a great scholar who initiated his son in scholarly traditions at an early age. He was taken to Kashi (Benares) and put under the tutelege of a renowned Pundit. He was initiated into the Sri Vidya Mantra and Upasana (Worship) by Guru Shiva Dutta Shukla of Surat. Later he toured the Gujarat region and won a debate against several scholars of the Madhva tradition.

A disciple king of Shivaji who was then ruling Thanjavur invited him to the South and gifted him a whole village on the banks of the Cauvery river. Bhaskara Raya made that village his headquarters for the rest of his life. It later came to be known as Bhaskara-raja-puram. He was challenged by many pundits but none could defeat him.

Today, a magnificent building stands in baskarajapuram in memory of the great Bhaskara Raya. It is a befitting tribute to his scholarship.